Playing The Game
by thedreamygirl
Summary: For authors Haley James and Nathan Scott it was attraction at first sight, and hate two minutes later. Luckily, they only have to endure each other for one day...right?
1. Prologue

**Title: **Playing the Game

**Author: **Hana (thedreamygirl)

**Pairing: **Nathan/Haley

**Rating: **Mature

**Summary: **For authors Haley James and Nathan Scott it was attraction at first sight, and hate two minutes later. Luckily, they only have to endure each other for one day. Or do they?

**Author's Note: **This was a request by **Kaia** but I'm not going to post the details of the request just yet because I don't want to give anything away. Thank you to **Diane** for all her thoughts and encouragement, and also to **Jess** for her feedback.

**Author's Note 2: **I know the last thing I need to be doing is starting another story, but Always Love is nearly finished and since I had the prologue of this done, I thought I would post it. Updates will be sporadic for now, but all the chapters after this prologue will be quite lengthy.

**Prologue**

_Raleigh, North Carolina._

The bottle opened, the champagne poured, five friends assembled round a kitchen table one early morning, preparing for a toast.

"Um, what exactly are we toasting by the way?" Chris Keller, the oldest of the five, asked.

"Yeah, and while you're at it, could you tell me why you had to come bang on my door and wake me up at 5 in the morning to do it?" Mouth McFadden groaned and pulled up a chair so he could sit down at his kitchen table rather than stay standing against the counter. "Some of us have jobs that don't offer us the luxury of working on our own time, and require us to be fully alert by 8 a.m."

"Stop complaining, Mouth," Lucas Scott told him as he helped his brother Nathan, the architect of this gathering, lift a cardboard box onto the table.

"Well, you did wake us pretty early. I mean, it may be 5 now, but when you came to my house to drag me here with you guys it was 4.30 a.m.," Jake Jagielski, the fifth member of the group, reminded him.

"Don't you keep a knife in your- never mind, I found it!" Nathan exclaimed, brandishing it triumphantly.

"Keep your voice down. You'll wake Melanie up," Mouth muttered, referring to his young daughter who had managed to sleep through his friends barging in so early in the morning. "You know she gets cranky when she doesn't sleep properly."

"I wonder where she gets that from," Nathan said, smirking. Mouth simply glared at him.

"Can we get on with things?" Chris wondered. "I'm recording tomorrow and I really don't want to waste precious studio time by falling asleep."

Nathan nodded and then used the knife to cut the cello tape that was holding the box together. Putting the knife down on the kitchen counter he came back to the table and opened the lid to reveal what was inside the box.

Jake reached inside the box and pulled out a book entitled, "The Player's Handbook". In smaller print at the bottom of the cover it named the book's author: Nathan Scott.

Chris, who had been looking over Jake's shoulder, furrowed a brow. "This is what we're toasting?"

"Nathan, your book came out months ago," Jake stated.

Lucas and Nathan glanced at each other, amused that their friends' didn't get it.

"You guys remember that it was doing quite well right?" Nathan asked.

"Yeah," Mouth half-said, half-yawned.

"Well, it did so well that it got sent to re-print!"

"Dude!" Chris exclaimed. "That's awesome!"

"Yeah, congratulations, Nate," Jake chimed in.

"Mmhmm, that's great, Nathan. Can I go back to sleep now?" Mouth muttered, not lifting his head from the table.

Lucas chuckled and slapped Mouth on the back. "Come on, man. We haven't even toasted Nate yet."

Jake picked up his glass, thinking the sooner they toasted, the sooner he could go back to sleep. He was still in his pyjamas, for Christ's sake! "To Nathan and his suc-"

"Wait, wait, wait!" Chris interrupted. "Why don't we make this interesting?"

"What do you mean?" Nathan wondered, as Mouth did his best not to protest.

"Alright, now, we've all read Nate's book, right?" When all the boys nodded, Chris continued, "Okay, but how many of you have actually been following what it says?"

Nathan glanced around and noticed that Mouth, Lucas and even Jake didn't seem to be nodding their heads.

Mouth sighed. "I just haven't felt like dating ever since Becky…" he trailed off and Jake looked at him sympathetically. Mouth's wife Becky, had died when Melanie was only one year old, and Mouth had never quite recovered from it.

"Well, this is not a dating handbook, is it Mouth?" Chris told him. "It's a player's handbook, and that's just what you need to get back into the game again."

Lucas rubbed his chin and looked thoughtful. "I have to say, Mouth, Chris has a point. I know that it's been hard on you, but it has been three years and all you've been doing is looking after Melanie or working. You need to start having some fun."

Mouth looked thoughtful, before asking, "What about you, Luke? You haven't exactly been out there in the dating game-"

"Playing," Chris corrected.

"Playing game," Mouth amended, rolling his eyes, "since your divorce."

"Well…" Lucas mumbled.

"What exactly are you proposing, Chris?" Jake asked.

"We should make a pact."

"A pact," Lucas repeated.

Chris nodded. "To follow the rules of the book."

"You know, it pains me to say this, but Keller might have actually hit on something there," Nathan admitted.

"You two," Jake pointed to Chris and Nathan, "are the biggest players out there. Why do you need to make a pact?"

Chris shrugged. "Because it's fun? Besides, Jagielski, I know it's been a while for you too, and you don't even have a good excuse like Mouth and Lucas here."

"What do you think?" Nathan asked his brother.

Lucas frowned. "It's a little 'Love's Labour's Lost', don't you think? Only instead of swearing off women, we're going to swear to – what exactly?"

"What are you talking about?" Chris wondered.

"It's Shakespeare. Um, never mind."

"Whatever, this isn't about love anyway. This is about having some fun," Chris reminded them. "So, what do you guys say?"

Nathan shrugged. "I'm in," he said, and Lucas, after another moment's thought, did the same.

"Jagielski?"

Jake sighed. "What the hell? Sure."

They all looked at Mouth, who was still resting his head against the table, but could feel their gazes on him. He yawned loudly before muttering, "All for one, one for all."


	2. Chapter 1

**Title: **Playing the Game

**Author: **Hana (thedreamygirl)

**Pairing: **Nathan/Haley

**Rating: **Mature

**Summary: **For authors Haley James and Nathan Scott it was attraction at first sight, and hate two minutes later. Luckily, they only have to endure each other for one day. Or do they?

**Author's Note: **Thank you to everyone who reviewed the prologue. I was so happy to see people enjoying it already, and I hope that you like this first chapter as it was so much fun to write. Thanks to **Diane** for her help with this chapter.

**Chapter One**

xx

_In the following pages I am going to show you how to increase your chances with women, basing much of my advice on my own experiences. However, before we get there, I am going to start off with a list of ten rules. Obviously, these are not the only things you should be aware of, but they are a basic ten that will provide you with a stepping stone, and, if you follow them in conjunction with the rest of my advice in this handbook you'll be well on your way in no time._

_**Rule Number One:**_

_First Impressions are key: don't pretend to be Mr. Commitment when you're not. _

- "The Player's Handbook", Nathan Scott.

xx

_One Month Later…_

Nathan Scott took in a deep breath as his plane finally came to a stop. No matter how much he travelled he had a feeling that his fear of flying would never truly disappear. There was just something about being thousands of feet above the ground that he couldn't reconcile himself with. He much preferred to drive places, even if it did take longer; with company, the drive could become an interesting road trip. However, he didn't have anyone to accompany him on his journey to San Francisco.

Due to the success of his book, his publishers had arranged for him to attend a series of book signings over the course of the next month, in order to garner some publicity for them and for him, and hopefully sell even more copies of "The Player's Handbook". As a result, Nathan had just had to suck it up, although his fear had been slightly increased when his plane had been delayed due to "technical difficulties". The flight delay had cut into the time Nathan was originally going to spend unpacking at the hotel he was staying at, so once he had left the plane, found his luggage and then the car that had been sent for him, the driver told him he had been instructed to take Nathan straight to the autograph signing and then once that was finished they would go to his hotel.

Nathan would have preferred having some time to relax first, but, knowing that his publishers couldn't very well reschedule his signing just because the plane in North Carolina was delayed, he nodded his agreement and let the driver take him to the book store where the signing would take place. Nathan sat in the back and idly stared out the window as he tried to remember what his publisher's PR rep had told him about the signing. Since he was a first-time author, the company had arranged for a few of his signings to be in conjunction with other people. Some of his signings were going to be with more well-known authors, but this particular one was going to be with another first-time author. Nathan hadn't really been paying attention when he'd been briefed about it, and he had yet to read the printout he'd been given of the details, but he could remember that the person he would be signing with this time was someone by the name of Haley James. Nathan couldn't recall ever hearing of her, but from what he had gathered from his briefing he thought her book was some chick lit novel, which would explain that.

When they arrived at the store, the driver parked the car in the parking lot and showed Nathan how to go in through the back door. With help from a few sales staff, Nathan managed to find his way into the main area where the signing would take place. The store was currently closed for lunch, a meal Nathan had missed thanks to his late flight, but would be opening shortly and he was starting to feel a mixture of excitement and nerves, although the former took over when he saw a stack of his books on a table, where he assumed he would be sitting for the signing.

On the other side of the long table was another stack of books; not bothering to look at the title, Nathan picked the top one up and flipped through the pages until he came to one at the back titled "About the Author". He briefly read through the details, glad to see that Haley James' mini-biography was simple and factual, and not a sad attempt at humour like some authors. He smiled when he saw that she was from North Carolina, just like him. He'd never been to Tree Hill, but he didn't think it was that far from Raleigh. It briefly amused him that two people from North Carolina had to come all the way to the West Coast to meet, but what caught his attention the most was the picture of Haley James, also on the page. Nathan had assumed that most authors of chick lit and romance novels were old undersexed women, creating a fantasy world to spice up their boring lives, but the picture showed him how wrong that assumption was; at least in the age department. Miss James looked about his age, maybe even younger. Noticing her date of birth included in the information, he did a quick mental calculation and worked out she was twenty-five years old, three years younger than he was. Haley James seemed reasonably attractive, making him think that perhaps the long day ahead wouldn't be very hard to get through. The old Scott charm never failed.

Putting the book back on its pile, Nathan put his hands into his trouser pockets and walked around a bit, feeling too restless to sit down. Not long after he heard a noise from the back, and turned to find the back door he had entered through opening, and saw someone coming through. It took Nathan a few seconds to register that he had seen her before; just a minute before, to be exact, in the inner jacket photo of her book. Seeing her in the flesh made Nathan realise that the photo didn't do her justice; Haley James was a knockout. Her shoulder length hair was a rich mixture of copper and honey-brown tones that didn't translate into the black and white photo, and since the photo only showed her from the neck up, it didn't display her petite figure. She was wearing a knee-length dress that clung to her curves, and over that she had on a green jacket. The pendant of the necklace she wore rested low on her chest, making Nathan very aware she was far from lacking in that department.

He managed to look up before she noticed him and caught him staring at her cleavage. She sent him a small smile, clearly showing she didn't know who he was.

"Uh, you must be Haley James?"

"Yes." She nodded. "I guess that means you are…"

She faltered at the end so Nathan jumped in, "Nathan Scott."

"Of course. Sorry, I knew that, I just totally blanked for a second there."

"That's alright," Nathan assured her, walking towards where she was standing.

"I don't think I've seen you at the hotel," Haley wondered.

"My flight got delayed so I actually just arrived," Nathan clarified. "The driver brought me straight here."

"Oh, you must be quite tired," Haley said sympathetically, but Nathan just shrugged.

"It's okay. Hey, I heard that you were from North Carolina." When Haley nodded the affirmative, he informed her, "I am too."

"Oh, really?" she said, her face breaking out into a smile. "That's such a coincidence! Where in North Carolina are you from?"

"Raleigh."

"Oh, I've never been to Raleigh, but my best friend went once on work and she really liked it there. She wasn't there for a long time, or anything, just about a week I think, I'm not sure – wait! Yes, it was a week; I remember because she complained since her hotel was mostly for people who came to do lots of things so it didn't have a TV in the rooms, only downstairs and so she was upset that she couldn't watch all three American Idol episodes that week because she didn't want to watch it in front of everyone. She didn't want to like it, but I made her watch it with me once and she got hooked," Haley explained. "I don't know if you've heard of Tree Hill – that's where I'm from - it's this really small town, but I love it there. It's home, you know." Nathan simply nodded as if he knew just what she meant, even though he really didn't.

And he'd never met a woman who talked so much! Aside from his mother ragging on him to clean his room when he was a teenager, most women he'd met didn't talk that much. He'd never been interested in conversation and had looked for…other qualities. Plus, when they did talk at length it was to flirt with him, and Haley James wasn't flirting. She was talking. And she used her hands a lot when she talked too.

Before Nathan had time to work out how to respond, he was thankfully interrupted by the arrival of someone else. "You're both here! Great!"

Nathan and Haley both turned to the side to look at the newcomer, and both smiled at their publisher's Public Relations representative.

"Hello, Brooke," Nathan said.

Brooke Davis stood directly in between them and turned to him first. "Nathan, was your flight alright?"

"Fine," he replied, knowing it was what she wanted to hear.

"And, Haley, you found your way here alright? Sorry about the car problem this morning, but we were one driver short."

"It was fine, Brooke. I didn't mind taking a cab. And, yeah, he knew the place; I just got here a few minutes ago."

"Perfect! Well, you've both been given all the details already – do you have any other questions?"

"No, I think everything I needed was there," Haley informed her, and Nathan, knowing he couldn't admit he hadn't read the handout properly, just nodded once more.

"Wonderful!" Brooke exclaimed, her hundred watt smile on full beam. "Well, then there's nothing to it except for you two to get ready and look pretty when your fans arrive – which you both do, I promise. The table and chairs are already set up," Brooke waved a hand to show them, "so just take a seat and the store will open in about ten minutes. I just have a few last minute things to check in the back, but I'll be out here with you two once we open, okay?"

Without giving either of them time to respond, Brooke went out the back door again and left Nathan and Haley alone in the front.

"I guess we should sit down then," Haley suggested.

"Yeah, I guess," Nathan agreed and walked to his side of the long table.

As Haley sat down in her chair she took a minute to scold herself for babbling so much. She had a tendency to talk at length, especially when she was nervous, but she had probably scared him with the way she was going on! She had feared the worst when she had heard the title of his handbook, or how-to manual, but he seemed nice. And he was very good-looking. It was just her luck that she'd made a fool of herself in front of him already. He hadn't laughed at her or anything though, so Haley hoped she hadn't seriously freaked him out – that, and he had written that book more for the money than because he truly believed you could teach someone how to use girls. After all, Haley thought wryly, for most men that was a God-given talent. In her experience, anyway.

She glanced over at Nathan, who was rocking back in his chair, obviously a little bored. She thought of starting a conversation, but scanned her brain to find something interesting to talk about. She'd already admitted to him that she liked American Idol, so perhaps it was better she steered clear of topics that would reveal some more of her embarrassing habits.

Nathan looked up, causing Haley to look at the books in front of her straight away. She was pretty sure he had caught her staring at him anyway, which made it even more embarrassing, but she decided the best plan was to just ignore it.

"So…" Nathan began, and Haley had no choice but to face him, "which of us do you think will sell more today?" he asked, casually.

Haley stared at him, surprised that her mouth didn't fall open in shock. Of all the things to say! "Excuse me?"

"I said-"

"I heard what you said."

Nathan's forehead wrinkled in confusion. "Well, then, why did you say 'Excuse me'?"

Haley huffed and told him, "Because that's not the point."

Nathan raised a brow at her, and he looked at her as if she didn't know what she was talking about, irritating Haley even more. "Well, actually, it kind of is."

Turning around in her seat so she didn't have to crane her head to glare at him, Haley folded her arms pointedly and asked, "And how do you figure that?"

"Because they've paired us up for a reason. They're not going to put you at a book signing with someone who's written a cookbook or something totally unrelated. Our books are both about people's personal lives, in a way, only mine is actually practical for men, and yours is chick lit," Nathan stated, as if it was obvious.

This time Haley's mouth did drop open. Chick lit! And she had thought he was nice! Haley had an extreme distaste for bragging, but even more she wanted to put Mr. Know-It-All in his place. "I'll have you know that one of the papers that reviewed my book said I was like the female Nicholas Sparks."

"Who?"

Getting more annoyed by the second, Haley explained, "A very famous author! You've never heard of Nicholas Sparks?" When Nathan continued to look blank she started listing off, "'True Believer', 'The Guardian', 'Message in a Bottle'? 'A Walk to Remember'? 'The Notebook'?"

"'The Notebook'!"

"Ah, that you've heard of!"

"That's a movie," Nathan stated.

"But, it was a book first," Haley told him, and had to bite her tongue to stop herself from call him something rude at the end of that sentence. The man was so aggravating!

"But that just proves it!" Nathan said triumphantly.

"Proves what?"

"The movie is a chick flick, which means that the book must be chick lit; so if you're the female Sparks or whatever, then by default, your book must be chick lit too!" Nathan finished, a satisfied smirk gracing his handsome features.

The look made most women want to throw themselves at his feet. It made Haley want to throw something sharp at his face.

"Wow, you actually know what default means," Haley snapped.

"What, are you saying I don't know anything?" Nathan answered, with an edge to his voice.

"Well, how hard can it be to write a manual on how to sleep around! You probably just woke up and thought, 'why don't I write about what I did this week?'! Might as well call it 'A Player's Autobiography'!"

"Well, haven't you ever heard the saying 'write about what you know'? Tell me, James, is your book based on a torrid love affair you had?"

"You have no place commenting on my book when you haven't even read it!"

"Then maybe you should show me the same courtesy!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

Haley slumped back in her chair, pouting to herself, and Nathan did the same, glaring at the space in front of him.

As if on queue, Brooke called out from behind, "Three minutes to show time, folks!"

That reminded Haley that she had to sign autographs in less than three minutes, and here she was in a bad mood! She had been so excited and looking forward to it! Damn that Nathan Scott for sucking the fun out of her first autograph signing! A voice in the back of her head told her that maybe she should apologise seeing as how she had said some mean things to him, and while he had been annoying, he hadn't been terribly rude, at least not at first. She didn't know where that had come from, really. She always thought herself a kind person, but that certainly hadn't shone through this morning.

Haley prepared herself and turned, about to apologise, when Nathan leaned over and took the top book off the pile of copies of her novel.

"What are you doing?" Haley asked.

Leaning back in his chair once more, Nathan started flipping through the pages. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

Haley took a deep breath and willed herself to stay calm. "Could you give that back please? People will be here soon."

Nathan just shrugged. "You said I can't say anything about it until I've read it so I'm reading it."

"You're not even reading it properly!" Haley protested.

"I'm skipping to the good bits."

"But, that's not how you read a book-" Haley sputtered.

"Ah! Here we go," Nathan said, sitting back in his chair, and began to read the page he had stopped at. "Wow, this is good stuff, James. '_He kissed the sensitive skin on the side of her neck and licked and sucked on her earlobe. She shuddered in pleasure and moaned his name_'," he quoted.

Blushing furiously, now equal parts embarrassed and annoyed, Haley reached over and impulsively tried to snatch it out of her hands.

"Hey!" Nathan exclaimed and held the book up over his head so she couldn't reach. "I'm trying to read, James. I think I saw something about how he takes off her bra in the next paragraph."

"Give it back!" Haley practically yelled, and tried to snatch it again, but his arms were too long, and there was too much space between their chairs.

She stood up to take it from him, but Nathan stood up as well and moved away, continuing to hold it over his head so she couldn't reach.

Thoroughly infuriated, Haley went over to him and stood on her tip-toes, but even with the boost from her shoes, she was far too short to reach. She glared at him, but he just held it as high as he could and smirked at her.

"Stop being so childish!" Haley shouted at him.

With an amused smile on his face, Nathan pointed out, "You're being pretty childish too."

Haley huffed and tried once more to obtain the book, and put one hand on his shoulder, to see if it would help her reach higher, but it still wasn't enough.

"You know, if you want to touch me, all you have to do is ask."

Haley's mouth gaped open at that, and she was on the verge of telling him where he could get off, when he took her by surprise, wrapping his free arm around her waist and pulling her flush against him. Too taken aback to react straight away, Haley just stared at him in shock.

At that precise moment, Brooke and the store manager both walked in from the back door and found Nathan and Haley in the other corner of the room, seemingly locked in an embrace.

"What!" Brooke exclaimed, utterly confused.

The sound of another voice from behind them, jerked Haley into action and she pushed away from Nathan and turned around. Haley looked extremely embarrassed, while Nathan simply grinned, causing Brooke to think something really had happened.

The manager started to chuckle, but Brooke soon cut him off. "I can't believe this! You were making out in the middle of the store!"

"But-" Haley started.

"Imagine if we hadn't come in and they'd opened the doors from the front – all the customers would have seen you like that! The company has a certain image to maintain, and while it wouldn't be against the rules for you to see each other, you must do so on your own time!" she lectured. "I may have expected this kind of behaviour from you Mr. Scott, but really, Haley, I thought more of you."

"We weren't making out!" Haley exclaimed. "I mean, _ew_!" she stressed. Haley turned to Nathan and prodded him, "Tell her!"

Nathan simply shrugged. "We don't have to hide, baby."

"Ah!" Haley practically yelled, and she slapped him on the shoulder. "We were not kissing or anything like that!" she told Brooke. "Don't listen to him! And don't call me 'baby'," she warned Nathan, snatching her book from his hands, now that he had lowered them. "He stole my book!" she said.

The manager's grin stayed in place, while Brooke rolled her eyes. "Haley, there are plenty of other copies here, and in the storeroom. Really! Both of you go sit down – without touching the other person's books – and wait without talking to each other for about thirty seconds until everyone starts coming in, okay? Do you think you can manage that?"

Nathan nodded, and Haley managed a meek, "Yes," as she clutched her book tightly.

"Okay, then."

Brooke remained where she was and watched them both sit down in their chairs without looking at one another. Only then, did she turn and follow the manager into the backroom, muttering to herself, "And they say movie stars are bad!"


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N: **Thank you to everyone who's left reviews; I love reading them. I'm glad to see so many of you enjoying this because it is so much fun to write. Thanks to **Diane** for the feedback, it really helps :)

**Chapter Two**

By the time Haley James returned to her hotel room, she was fuming. It had been over an hour since then and her mood wasn't any better, despite the fact that she had attempted to have a long relaxing bath. Damn Nathan Scott for ruining her very first autograph signing!

The rational part of her brain told her that he hadn't actually done anything – hadn't even spoken to her at all during the entire thing – but that hadn't really mattered. His mere presence was a pain in her side!

She wasn't sure why, but she had expected that at the book signing she would get mostly female buyers, and his would mostly be male. The first part of her assumption had been correct as, apart from the odd male buying her book as a present for a wife or girlfriend, they were all women. However, as far as Nathan's buyers went she had been dead wrong. Haley supposed that the men who bought Nathan's book just weren't the type to want it autographed since nearly all the people in his queue were female as well! As far as some of the younger women were concerned, she had a feeling they had only bought his book so that they could ask him to sign it in order to flirt with him – and flirt they had.

But, it hadn't ended there! Mr. Scott had decided to flirt back! The man clearly had no idea how to be a professional. There wasn't a single one of them who left without being flashed that devilish smirk, the one he'd even dared to flash at her earlier on!

"Hmph," Haley muttered to herself as she laid her towel out on the chair to dry.

She had got back at him though. A nice old lady had come up to Haley wanting her book autographed, telling her how she loved to read romance novels now that her real life romance had fizzled and, in his old age, her husband loved to go to bed merely to sleep. Haley had just smiled at the lady, rather than admit that was far too much information, until the lady had asked her whether "that nice man over there's book" was a sex handbook of some sort.

Haley hadn't been able to resist. The look on Nathan's face as he had tried to explain to the lady that his book was not a sex manual had been worth it too. The memory of Nathan mumbling to the lady something about how he didn't think it would be appropriate for her husband caused Haley to let out a little snort, something she had unfortunately also done the first time she'd heard him say it; resulting in the woman who she was signing for giving her an odd look, and Nathan shooting her a glare, having figured out the source of his predicament.

'And who wasn't being professional then?' the nagging voice in her head reminded her.

But Haley managed to shrug it off. Besides, she was leaving tonight to go to her next signing. She had managed to dodge Nathan after the signing, preferring to return in a cab rather than share the car sent for them with him, and she hadn't seen him since. If her luck was really good, she might be able to leave without ever having to see him again!

With that pleasant thought in mind, Haley tucked one sweat pant covered leg under the other, settling back on the bed to watch some television. She had just put her finger on the remote switch when her phone rang. Reaching over to pick up her mobile phone, Haley read the name on the display screen: Brooke.

Pressing the button to pick up, she answered, "Hey, Brooke."

"Hey there. How are you feeling? You alright? The room's perfectly comfortable, right?"

"Er, yeah, I-"

"Glad to hear it. Do you think you could meet me in the lobby in like fifteen minutes?"

"Do you want to have drinks?" Haley wondered, not averse to the idea. In the short time they had spent together she and Brooke had developed an easy sort of friendship, although they weren't as close as friends just yet. Plus, she thought that Brooke might still be a little mad at her for that morning's antics and she'd like to the opportunity to explain that to her in full. As the publishing company's PR rep she had to be neutral, but as a friend was a whole different issue.

"That sounds like a great idea, Haley, but I can't right now. I've been talking to the big bosses and I have some things to discuss with you guys."

Haley almost said, "sure," until she heard the end of Brooke's sentence. "Did you just say 'you guys' as in plural? Who else is going to be there?" she asked warily.

Brooke sighed. "Yes, Haley, Nathan is going to be there, but don't you think you two could not bicker with each other for at least ten minutes?"

"I wasn't bickering! Nathan was –"

"Never mind! Can you be down in fifteen minutes?"

"Yes," Haley agreed, grudgingly.

"Good. I'll see you then," Brooke told her, hanging up the phone without her usual goodbye, and Haley had a sneaky suspicion that she had done so in order to prevent Haley from complaining about Nathan again.

Resigning herself to putting up with him for another fifteen minutes at the most, Haley changed out of her sweatpants and into her jeans. She considered changing out of her hooded sweater as well, but then thought against it. Brooke wouldn't mind, and she didn't want Nathan to think she was dressing up for him or anything.

"As if," Haley said under her breath.

Remembering to take her keys, she left the room and headed to the elevator only five minutes after Brooke's call, but she thought she could always get a drink from the bar while she was waiting.

The moment she stepped into the lobby Haley started to rethink her decision not to change out of her old, loose-fitting sweater. Nathan was already in the lobby, chatting with two girls she didn't recognise. He was still in his smart clothes from that morning, except he had lost the jacket and all he had adorning those broad shoulders was his crisp white shirt. Next to him stood two tall, leggy blondes, their barely-there clothing draped around their skinny frames. A complete cliché, Haley thought, but then again she should have expected nothing else from Nathan Scott. The man had, after all, written a Player's Handbook.

At that moment he looked up making eye contact with Haley. She was about to send a tight-lipped smile his way out of mere politeness, when a second later he looked away from her and back to his blondes.

Well, of all the things to do! He was ignoring her! The nerve!

Haley immediately turned on her heel and headed toward the bar, ordering herself a coke. She wasn't going to break her self-imposed no alcohol before evening rule just because of Nathan Scott. It wouldn't be good to give him the satisfaction.

When the bartender placed the drink in front of her, Haley told him to add it to her room bill, before taking the drink and moving to sit on one of the sofas nearby; specifically one that faced away from Nathan Scott and his girlfriends. Setting the drink down on the table Haley picked up a magazine and started flipping through it disinterestedly, wishing Brooke would hurry up.

Her eyes had finally landed on a semi-interesting article when she heard the sound of the tree rustling beside her, letting her know someone was walking past. The someone turned out to be the bane of her existence himself, casually moving to sit in the sofa directly opposite her like he had every right to do so.

"Waiting for someone?" he asked, leaning back leisurely.

"Yeah, I'm waiting for Godot," Haley replied dryly, without looking up from her magazine.

His forehead creased in confusion at the comment. "Huh?"

"If you read proper books then you would know."

Nathan made a sound like that of a scoff.

Somehow, the sound provoked her worse than any of his previous comments. "What?" she demanded.

"Well, you talk of proper books, but the last time I checked chick lit wasn't exactly considered high-end literature."

Still looking at her magazine, Haley narrowed her eyes and if it had been possible the glare would have burnt a hole through the page. "I actually wrote a novel. You just wrote about your exploits!"

"So you're saying that fiction is better than non-fiction? Because I think a lot of people would have a problem with that."

Seeing that he was about to drag her into a pointless argument, that would only worsen her mood she snapped, "Can you just stop talking?"

"Sorr-ee," Nathan dragged out, exaggeratedly. "Excuse me for asking a simple question."

"Why don't you just go rejoin your fan club?"

Haley could feel him staring at her, and he must have possessed some sort of Jedi mind trick powers because she soon found herself raising her gaze from the magazine to meet his.

The moment she did, he smirked. "Jealous?"

"Me?" Haley scoffed. "Yeah, right. Those girls are totally welcome to you," she commented, but to her chagrin he only grinned widely at her admission.

"I actually meant were you jealous that I have a fan club and you don't, but since you chose to interpret it like that…" Nathan trailed off, but moved his eyebrows suggestively.

"Oh, grow up."

"Hey, you're the one who suggested it, not me," Nathan said defensively. "Although I don't know how I feel about that. I usually prefer my woman more talkative in bed than out and you seem to be the opposite-"

"Nathan!" Haley exclaimed. "H-how…you…" she sputtered, "How dare you say something like that!"

Nathan's eyebrows perked up at her words. "How 'dare' I? Pretty harsh words-"

"You have no place insinuating what I would be like…in…well…doing that."

"You mean, having sex?" he asked nonchalantly, the smirk planted firmly on his face.

Haley practically growled, but before she could reply another female voice pitched in. "You two are discussing having sex?!" the voice exclaimed.

"No, Brooke, Nathan was just being-"

"We were just talking Brooke," Nathan pitched in.

"About having sex," she said pointedly.

Haley opened her mouth, but Nathan cut in saying, "It was more about having sex in general than actually deciding to have sex ourselves. Besides, Haley says she won't have me."

"I won't," she stressed. "I would never."

Nathan put a palm over his heart and made a mock-hurt face. "You wound me."

"Okay, enough you two," Brooke stated, holding her hands up for them to get the message. "Why don't you just stop talking to each other and instead listen to me, okay?"

Haley nodded, putting the magazine away, while Nathan just shrugged.

"Okay." Brooke took a seat next to Haley before continuing, knowing it was probably better she be seated when she broke the news. "Well, for starters, the autograph signing went really well. Both of you did amazingly, so you should be really pleased – I know the company is."

Haley smiled at that piece of information, while Nathan's reaction was to ask, "So which of us sold more?" Haley turned to glare at him, but he sent her a look back. "What, don't you want to know?"

And as much as she hated to admit it, she kind of did want to know. Nathan Scott sure brought out the worst in her.

However, Brooke interrupted her thoughts. "That's not the point. Besides, I can't give out that kind of information."

"You can't or you won't?" Nathan asked.

"Both, seeing as how I don't know yet," Brooke clarified. "Now, back to the reason I called you both down here."

"That wasn't the reason?" Haley wondered.

"The people back at the office have had an idea. And I think it's really good."

"Well, what is it?" Nathan asked.

"I'm getting there," Brooke assured him, "but first, I want both of you to promise that you won't interrupt me until I'm finished."

"Okay," Haley answered, a little surprised by the request, while Nathan nodded his assent.

"Okay. Well." Brooke took a deep breath. "There's been a change of plans in your schedules; both your schedules. Instead of the original itinerary we had drawn up, we're going to be altering things slightly."

"In what way?" Haley questioned, a little worried, but Brooke simply held up a hand.

"I haven't finished yet. Like I said before, you two did really well today. Not that we hadn't thought you would do well – of course we had – but it totally surpassed our expected numbers. And while that is obviously because of both your books' individual merits," Brooke told them convincingly, "the department thinks that the exceptional attention has something to do with the pairing of your two books in particular."

"You cannot mean what I think you mean," Haley blurted out.

"What happened to you promising you wouldn't interrupt?" Brooke stated.

Haley put her hand over her mouth and looked contrite, only a second later Nathan prodded, "Yeah, Haley?"

It took everything she had to respond to that. However, when Brooke shot Nathan a look for the comment, Haley couldn't resist sticking her tongue out at him, maturity be damned.

"What the idea is," Brooke resumed, having missed Haley's antics, "is to alter your schedules so that you do all, or most if they can't reschedule them all, your book signings together!" When Nathan and Haley didn't say anything, she added, "I'm finished now."

"You can't be serious!" Haley exclaimed, sitting upright.

"Actually, I am. This could be really good for sales-"

"It's not all about sales," Haley argued.

"So, you'd rather your book didn't sell at all? You'd prefer for no one to buy your book?" Nathan pointed out.

"That's not what I meant-"

"The point is," Brooke cut in, "that this could be a great opportunity for both of you, one you should be happy to get."

"So, that's it? From now on – for the rest of the entire month – we'll be doing practically all our signings together?"

"Well, we're going to give it a try. The next signing is definitely being rescheduled so that both of you will be in L.A. tomorrow. And, once we see what the results of those are, we'll make a decision on whether or not to follow this through for the entirety of the month."

"But I was only going to L.A. later, I was supposed to leave tonight to go-"

"And you will go there, just at a re-arranged date, regardless of whether or not Nathan will be joining you for that signing. For now, Haley, you will be staying here overnight just like Nathan was going to anyway, and the both of you will be leaving together for L.A. I've already got your room extended so all we have to worry about is making the day after today's signing as successful as the one we had this morning and the two of you not killing each other before we get there."

* * *

Fat chance of that happening, Haley sulked to herself as she replayed Brooke's words in her head, later in the evening.

Mere hours ago she had been relishing the fact that she was leaving the city that evening and would never have to meet the darned man again. Now, she not only had to go through another signing with him, she very possibly had to do all her signings with him! Haley shoved her hands in the pockets of her sweater as she gazed out from the balcony, a frown on her face.

She was interrupted from her musings by a sharp knock on the door. Hoping very much that it was Brooke coming to tell her that the department had come to their senses and rethought the whole thing, she jogged across the room and reached for the doorknob without looking through the peephole, a habit she had become accustomed to since in Tree Hill everyone knew everyone anyway.

When she opened the door, she wished she had looked through the peephole.

"What do you want?"

"Well, hello to you too, sunshine."

Haley simply crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. "What is it, Nathan?"

"Do you think that maybe you could drop the attitude a little? I have, after all, come here with a peace offering?"

"You have?"

"Is that so hard to believe?" he asked.

Haley just shrugged. "What are you proposing?"

Although his expression remained the same, Haley noticed Nathan's blue eyes light up. "I'm not proposing. I said peace, not marriage."

"Oh, that's really funny." Haley turned to go back inside, when Nathan put a hand on the door to stop her.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't resist," he admitted, with a look penitent enough to let her give him another minute to explain himself. But only one. Shoving his hands back in his pockets, Nathan resumed, "Anyway, what I thought was, we have to not only see each other, but sort of work alongside each other, for a couple more days at the very least, more likely for an entire month."

"Yes, I know, I was there, Nathan."

"And since that's the case," he went on, ignoring her remark, "there's really no point us just arguing all the time. I came on this expecting to enjoy myself and I see no reason why I shouldn't still do that."

"Neither do I."

"Okay, then."

"So what do you pr-" Haley stopped herself, and rephrased. "So, what are you saying we do?"

Nathan shrugged. "Just start afresh. Forget this morning and just try to get along with each other as far as necessary."

"I guess that sounds okay," Haley admitted.

"Good. What were you planning on doing for dinner tonight?"

"Oh, I was just going to order room service. Why?"

"Well, since I was going to be staying over tonight anyway I asked Brooke to make me a reservation at a restaurant a while ago."

"But why not just eat downstairs?"

"My brother's stayed at this hotel when he was in town on business before and he said the rooms are good but the food isn't, so I thought I'd just make a reservation in advance, instead of taking the chance that I couldn't get a place to eat."

Haley nodded, surprised that that actually sounded a little sensible. She had had breakfast there that morning, and the food was really not much to talk about. "Sounds like you have a plan."

"Yeah, so I thought maybe you'd like to come to dinner with me."

"Me?"

Nathan chuckled and nodded. "Yeah. Consider it practice in us getting along. Plus, dinner by myself is always a little boring."

"But Brooke would have only made you a reservation for one."

"I'll have to give them a call, but I'm sure they'll be able to make it for two. Two people can sit at the same size table most restaurants set out for one."

That was true. "Sure, okay. That sounds good," Haley admitted. "What time is your reservation?"

"Eight-thirty. Is it okay if we leave in half an hour?"

"Yeah, that's fine. I can be ready by then."

"Okay. Oh," Nathan added just as he was about to walk away. "You have other clothes right?"

"Huh? Of course I own other clothes…"

"No, I mean, I'm sure these weren't the only clothes you brought with you," Nathan stated, gesturing to her get-up, "but I meant did you bring any clothes that aren't quite so casual? It's a five-star restaurant."

"I'm sure I can find something to wear," Haley ground out.

"Alright, I'll see you in half an hour then," Nathan said, unaware that Haley's mood had just soured.

"See you then," she replied to his retreating form in a sickly sweet tone, before slamming the door shut.


	4. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: **Thank you to everyone who left reviews! I love reading them. And a big thank you to Diane for betaing.

**Chapter Three**

**_The Player's Handbook Rule Number Two:_**

_If she's not interested, just move on. _

_You know that saying 'there are plenty more fish in the sea'? Well, it's true. There are many more out there so why waste time and effort on her if the attraction isn't mutual?_

* * *

Half an hour after he left Haley's doorway Nathan was standing in the hotel lobby, waiting for her to come downstairs so they could leave. He thought about going to the bar and getting a drink while he waited, but decided against it. Although in his experience most women were usually late, Miss Haley James didn't seem like any woman he'd met before. 

It was probably why he found her so…interesting. He couldn't remember the last time a woman had ever wanted him to leave her alone and that in itself was intriguing. The way she got so mad about the slightest thing was just a bonus. She certainly had one fiery little temper and he enjoyed seeing how much, or rather how little, it would take to piss her off.

However, he knew he had to tone that down now. Haley may not think he was a professional, or whatever it was that she had said to him, but the success of this book tour actually mattered to him. After a few years of shifting around uninteresting jobs he'd finally done something that he'd enjoyed. Ten years ago he'd never have pictured himself as a writer, and, granted, he had employed a little of his brother's help in the actual writing of his book, but he'd had fun producing it. Added to that, he'd actually achieved something without his father's help and that, if not anything else, was important to him. So whether or not he ever wrote again, he didn't want to screw up this book tour just for the sake of annoying Haley James.

Besides, they were both good-looking people, he thought to himself, a smirk growing on his face. There were plenty of other things they could do with their time than argue…

The smirk immediately dropped from Nathan's face when his gaze drifted through the lobby and landed on the elevators. Haley had just stepped off the elevator and was heading in his direction, looking completely different to how he had last seen her. In place of jeans and a sweater she wore a little black dress that moulded to her upper body perfectly before flowing out at the waist and down to her knees where it ended. On her feet she had black high heels, which boosted her up slightly, but, he noticed when she reached him, she was still only up to his shoulders.

Looking up at him, she gave him a small smile. "Hi."

Taking in her tight up-do, the light touch of make-up she had applied, the necklace she had been wearing that morning and the small white studs in her ears, Nathan smiled back. "Hey."

"So, uh…is this good enough for your five star restaurant?" she asked, a slight challenge in her voice as she gestured to her outfit.

Nathan grinned at that. "Definitely. You look nice," he added.

The teasing look in her eyes faded at his comment, as if she hadn't expected it. "Oh, um, thank you. You-you look nice too," she said of his blue shirt, black trousers and matching black jacket ensemble.

"Thanks. So, shall we get going then?"

Haley nodded, and Nathan ushered her outside where the provided car was waiting for them. He shut the car door for her after she slid in on the right-hand side, before he walked round the car to sit on the left, behind the driver. Brooke had already told the driver where they wanted to go, so he took off straightaway.

Nathan slouched back on his side of the car while Haley sat in a similar position in hers.

"So…" She began racking her brain for small talk. She would have thought it wouldn't be so hard with the way she loved to babble!

"So…" Nathan repeated. "Have you ever been to San Francisco before?"

"No," she replied. "This is my first visit. Actually, before this I've only been out of North Carolina once, and that was to the publishing company's headquarters," Haley admitted.

Nathan stared at her in mild shock. "Seriously? You'd never been out of North Carolina before that?"

Haley shook her head. "Nope. I have travelled around North Carolina a bit with my family – not to Raleigh though," she stated. "You ever come here before this morning?"

It was Nathan's turn to shake his head. "Nah; my brother has a couple times though."

"Oh, right, you mentioned him earlier," Haley remembered. "Is you brother older or younger?"

"Older. Only three months, but he acts like he's much older and wiser than I am," Nathan said with a chuckle.

"Three months?" Haley wondered aloud, her mind going into overdrive. "I heard this story from my neighbour one day about how in Russia – or someplace, I can't remember exactly – that this woman gave birth to twins two months apart of each other, but I thought someone had just told her that as a joke and she believed them. I mean, my neighbour, she's nice and all, but not really a fountain of useful information."

Nathan laughed. "I should have said, we're actually half brothers. It's a long story but basically my Dad got my brother's mum pregnant, then started dating my mum and got her pregnant."

"Oh. That makes much more sense than my delayed twins story," Haley said, a little embarrassed. "Sorry."

"Yeah, it does. Don't worry about it. So, your friend who told you that story, is she the same one who came to Raleigh and got upset that she couldn't watch American Idol?"

Haley couldn't help the slight blush that coloured her cheeks at his question. "No, that's my friend Peyton. The one who told me this story isn't really a close friend or anything, I just know Gigi because she lives in the apartment next to mine."

"Oh, right. So, do you have any siblings?"

"Yep, five of them."

Nathan could tell Haley saw the way his eyebrows shot up from the smile on her face. "Big family."

"Yeah, I'm the youngest of four girls and two boys."

"That must have been nice."

"It was sometimes. But, by the time I was a teenager all my brothers and sisters had moved out so my parents would keep switching between all of us and doing stuff for themselves rather than just staying at home."

Before Nathan could make a reply, the car pulled to a stop and the driver turned around to let them know they had arrived.

Nathan and Haley both opened their doors and Nathan had just put one foot on the ground outside when he heard Haley say, "Thank you, Barry."

He made a face, fully aware that he hadn't known the driver's name, let alone been on the verge of thanking the guy. Momentarily wondering when Haley had had a conversation with Barry, Nathan muttered, "Thanks," and stepped out closing the door behind him, before going to join Haley where she was standing on the pavement.

"This is the place where we're having dinner?" she asked, gesturing to the glitzy building in front of them, decorated in red and yellow hangings. Nathan never liked showy decorations but if the food was good, he wasn't about to complain.

"Yeah. Shall we?"

At Nathan's confirmation, Haley had to bite the side of her lip to ward off a frown. She had never been to such a posh restaurant before and she had a feeling that now she knew why. The women that she saw entering it were dressed to the hilt, and although Nathan's comment about her clothes earlier had annoyed her, she could see that he had a point. Even in her little black dress, the nicest dress of the three she had brought with her in the occasion she needed to dress up, she felt slightly underdressed in comparison to them. However, she had no choice now but to go in because she certainly wasn't about to tell Nathan how she was feeling.

"Sure," she replied and started walking forward. She was somewhat startled when something warm touched the small of her back, something she soon realised was Nathan's hand. She looked up sideways at him, but he was just walking normally, looking like either he didn't know it was there, or it was a perfectly natural thing for him to be doing.

Before she could dwell on it, they reached the front desk where the maître d' stood waiting and Nathan's hand dropped from its place.

The maître d' exchanged greetings with them before asking whether they had booked a reservation.

Nathan nodded. "Scott, table for two?"

He checked through his book and smiled at them when he found the name. "Yes, of course, Mr. Scott. Right this way," he said, leading them to a small table in a corner of the main room.

Haley noticed that the décor on the inside matched the red and yellow colour scheme they had outside. It was a bit over the top for her, but, as they reached their table, she noticed they had a gorgeous view of the San Francisco Bay.

Nathan sat opposite to her as the maître d' tucked her chair in. After handing them their menus he asked if there was anything else they wanted just then. They both shook their heads and he left them to peruse their menus.

Staring out the window through the gap between the sheer yellow curtains, Haley smiled. "The view is beautiful, isn't it?"

Nathan glanced up momentarily before returning to his menu. "Yeah, it's fine."

Haley admired it for a few more minutes before turning her gaze onto the table. When she did she was surprised to see two menus placed before her. She opened them both simultaneously and discovered the smaller one only listed drinks. "Why is there a separate menu for drinks?" Haley wondered aloud.

"Uh…I don't know actually," he admitted. "It's what they have in most places though."

"Oh."

At that moment a waiter approached them and asked what drinks they would like to order before telling them what the wine of the day was.

"Would you like some wine?" Nathan asked Haley. When she shook her head, he ordered himself a drink.

"And what would you like to drink, miss?" the waiter asked.

"Um, could I just have a glass of water?"

The waiter nodded and left them to place the order so they returned to their main menus.

Haley picked the main menu up from her lap and, as always, she started scanning to find the pasta section and saw they had a few that looked interesting. The dishes were certainly more adventurous than her basic mac and cheese. She was trying to decide between a vegetarian pasta dish that had lots of exotic sounding spices and a pasta with bacon concoction when her eyes accidentally arrived at the prices. Her eyes widened as she tried to process the numbers she was reading. She had assumed a posh restaurant would be more expensive – but she hadn't thought it would be that expensive!

She lowered the menu ever so slightly so she could peer over it to look at Nathan. He had his menu resting against the table so she could observe him freely, but he didn't seem ruffled by what he was reading at all. Her nose wrinkled in frustration as she realised he probably demanded Brooke reserve him the very best restaurant in town.

Sighing, she looked back at the menu trying to figure out what she could order that wouldn't put a huge dent in her wallet. Finally, she found something manageable. She wouldn't enjoy her meal, but she would eat it. And then she would go back to the hotel and order a burger and fries from room service. Or maybe she'd get a pizza delivered, she thought, remembering the hotel's bad food was part of the reason for this meal out.

The waiter returned not long after with their drinks and asked if they were ready to order their meal. Nathan glanced over at Haley and she nodded, putting on a smile. After the waiter took down Nathan's order of lobster plus a starter he turned to her.

"I'll have the potato and mushroom salad."

"And what would you like for the main course?"

"Uh, just the salad please."

"Alright. Shall I have the kitchen make it a large one?"

"Uh, sure. Thank you."

Nathan eyed her suspiciously, but she avoided looking at him. He had an idea of why she only wanted the salad, but he didn't know how to mention it without offending her. He remained quiet while the waiter was still at the table, gathering the menus, but after he left, he asked, "Are you sure you only want a salad?"

"That's what I said, wasn't it?"

"I know, but, a salad's really light. You might be hungry afterwards…"

"I'll be fine!" Haley assured him before taking a sip of her water.

Nathan scrunched up his eyes and tried to prepare himself for the verbal onslaught he knew he was going to face. "Okay, but really feel free to order anything you want. I don't mind picking up the tab-"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just that I'm paying for tonight."

"No, you're not. This isn't a date or anything, I don't need you to pay for me-"

"I know it's not a date and I know you don't need me to," Nathan interrupted, "but I invited you out to dinner and I intend to pay for the whole meal."

"Out of pity because you think I can't afford anything," Haley scoffed.

"Actually I always intended to pay for dinner," Nathan said, truthfully. "And I never said that."

"But you obviously think it or you wouldn't have mentioned it out of nowhere. Maybe I ordered only a salad and water because I'm on a diet! Ever think of that?"

He hadn't, but Nathan replied, "Well, you don't strike me as someone who's worried about her weight." He hadn't thought anything wrong with the statement, but the look on Haley's face showed it was the wrong thing to say.

"Gee, thanks!" Haley exclaimed, a little louder than she would have liked.

"Now what did I say?" Nathan hissed, not wanting to attract other people's attention.

"Well, clearly you think I'm so fat that what I eat doesn't matter-"

"I never said you were fat-"

"Well, you were implying it."

"No, I was not."

"Well, what else could you mean?" Haley demanded.

"That unlike most strange girls dying to look sickly thin like Paris Hilton or whatever celebrity, I assumed you were much more sensible than to obsess over your dress size or your waistline. And, if you must know, I think you have a very good figure; when you actually dress properly instead of hiding under baggy sweatshirts you look very sexy," he added, although the compliment was somewhat detracted since he was glaring, annoyed, at her as he said it.

Haley could only stare dumbfounded at his unexpected flattery, and was only broken out of her stupor when the waiter returned with her salad and Nathan's starter and exclaimed, "Bon appetite!"

* * *

Over an hour after they had arrived at the restaurant, Nathan and Haley got back into the car, the awkward silence that had settled over them ever since her small outburst still present. The most fascinating conversation they had had after it had consisted of Haley asking him how was his lobster and Nathan replying that it was, "Good."

Haley couldn't wait to get back to the hotel. Technically, she knew that she was more at fault for their current animosity than he, but she liked to think that he was this catalyst that brought out the worst in her so it would just be best for them to avoid each other as much as possible and not to attempt any non-chaperoned outings ever again.

Wrapped up in her thoughts, it took Haley a few moments before she realised they were driving by the same object of her attention back in the restaurant. "Barry," she said, sitting up and moving forward so the driver could hear her better, "is that the San Francisco Bay?"

"Yes, Haley. Would you like me to slow down so you can have a better look?" he asked, slowing down the car as he spoke.

"Actually, could you stop for just a-" Haley stopped herself the moment she remembered she wasn't the only person in the car with Barry.

Turning around she looked at Nathan who had turned away from his window when Haley had started speaking. "I don't mind," he stated.

"We don't have to," she told him, feeling bad that she had asked without consulting him first. "It's okay, we can just drive slowly."

"It's okay, Haley," Nathan assured her. "Go get down."

Before Haley could protest Barry rolled to a stop on the side of the road, so she stepped out, leaving her purse in the back seat. There wasn't much traffic so Haley crossed the road easily and when she reached the pavement looked out through the railing at the bay.

She didn't think anything of the footsteps near her until she heard the person speak. "It's actually kind of nice. In the night and everything."

She glanced up at Nathan and gave him a small smile. "It's beautiful."

They watched the slow movement of the water and the way it reflected the moonlight in silence for a few moments before Haley finally said, "I'm sorry for kind of blowing up at you in there."

Nathan shrugged. "It's okay."

"It is?"

"Yeah. However, if you had been loud enough for everyone to hear us, then that would have been a whole other story," he warned mock-seriously, causing Haley to giggle.

"That was actually funny. Who knew?"

"Gee, thanks."

"No, I-I didn't mean that you can't be funny," Haley stuttered, mentally giving herself a slap on the forehead.

"Kind of sounded like it."

Haley shook her head and smiled ruefully. "We're doomed."

"Well that's a very defeatist attitude. What happened to your whole never give up philosophy?"

Haley looked at Nathan strangely. "What?"

"I was bored earlier, when I was waiting for Brooke to finish up in the bookstore so we could leave – you had already gone in the cab – so I got in a couple of pages of your book. There was a definite 'never give up' feel in that passage."

"You read my book?" she said incredulously.

"Just three pages of it," Nathan said nonchalantly.

"I'm guessing they weren't the first three pages," Haley mused and she took Nathan's resulting smirk as confirmation. "So, uh, what did you think?"

"A bit romantic for my taste, but I enjoyed the making out in that scene very much," he said, his blue eyes sparkling and Haley flushed slightly, although she liked to think it was a result of the cool night air.

"What do you have against romance?" she asked, eventually.

Nathan shrugged. "I've just never believed in it."

"Romance or love?" Haley wondered.

"Isn't it the same thing?"

"No, not necessarily."

"Well, as fascinating as a debate on love and romance would be, we should probably get back to the hotel," Nathan stated. "We have a flight tomorrow morning."

"That's true," Haley agreed. She turned to cross the road again, but in moving noticed something further down the pavement that she hadn't seen earlier. "What kind of stand is that?" she wondered aloud.

"Uh…I think he's selling food." As soon as the words left Nathan's mouth, Haley walked past him and straight towards the man with the cart. "Haley!" he called, and started off after her. With Nathan having the longer legs they both reached the cart at the same time, and realised what was on sale simultaneously.

"Are you selling hot dogs?" Haley said.

"Yes, I am. You're just in time because I'm ten minutes from closing up. Now, what can I get you?"

"One with everything," Haley informed him enthusiastically.

"And for you?" he asked Nathan.

"Nothing, thanks."

Nodding, the man prepared Haley one hot dog with everything and handed it over, telling her how much it cost. It was only then that she remembered her purse was in the car.

"Oh, Nathan could you-" She had barely started her sentence when he pulled out a bill and handed it to the vendor.

"Keep the change."

"Thank you," he said, accepting it happily.

"I didn't mean for you to pay," Haley explained as they walked away from the cart, "I was just going to ask you to hold my hotdog for me while I got my purse."

Nathan was sure that had been the case, well aware she would never ask him for money, but simply said, "It's okay, Haley. The hot dog cost even less than that measly salad you had at the restaurant."

"But you paid for dinner as well and-"

"Haley, it's okay," he repeated. "Just have the hot dog." She didn't say anything but she also didn't start eating it. "Eat it before it gets cold," Nathan encouraged.

Relenting – mostly because she was still so hungry – Haley quickly consumed the hot dog, making little appreciative noises as she did so, glad to be eating real food, finally. When she was finished she wiped her hands on the napkin that the vendor had given her with the hot dog, and was crushing the tissue paper into a ball when she noticed Nathan was looking at her. "What? Do I have sauce on my mouth?"

"No. I've just never seen anyone moan while eating a hot dog before."

"What! I wasn't moaning!"

Nathan chuckled. "Then what do you call those little pleasure sounds you were making just then?"

"Wh…I…" she sputtered, falling short of an acceptable answer. There was something about the way he had said the word "pleasure" that made it sound naughty and hard for her to think straight.

"Come on, Barry's waiting," he said, gesturing to the car and made to walk across the street, leaving her little choice but to follow him.

They didn't exchange much conversation on the rest of the short drive back, but the silence had become more companionable then awkward. Once they had arrived at the hotel, Nathan and Haley walked through the lobby and towards the elevators.

As they were waiting for the lift to come down, she asked him conversationally, "What floor are you on?"

"Three," he answered.

But when they stepped into the lift Haley noticed he only pressed the number for the second floor, her floor. When the elevator doors closed and the started moving upwards, Haley reminded him, "Aren't you going to press the button for your floor?"

"Yeah, I will," he said, but made no move to do so.

They soon arrived at the second floor and Haley got out, and noticed Nathan was following her out as well. "Oh, you don't have to take me to my room," she assured him.

"I don't mind." And before she could protest he put his hand on the small of her back and pushed her gently forwards so they walked down the hall to where her room was located near the back.

"This is me," Haley told him, as they reached the door.

"Yep, I remember."

"Right," she muttered, turning around, wondering how this suddenly felt awfully similar to the end of a date when you didn't know what to say. "Um…thanks for paying for tonight," was all she could come up with.

"You don't have to thank me. I had fun tonight," Nathan confessed.

"Fun?" Haley repeated blankly.

Nathan laughed at her incredulous look, the sparkle in his blue eyes returning. "Well, I can't deny that I would have preferred it without the outburst in the restaurant…"

Smiling ruefully, she mentioned, "Yeah, I guess that doesn't happen on many of your dates."

"I thought you said tonight wasn't a date."

"I didn-I mean, I did; I did say that. It wasn't. It was just two people making an effort to better their working relationship."

Nathan couldn't help but smile at how professional she had sounded. "Okay. And would you say we've achieved that goal?" he teased.

"Yeah, I guess so," she admitted honestly.

"So do I. So, I suppose there wouldn't be any reason to do this again?" he added. "I mean, when we go to L.A."

"I don't see why we should," Haley said, without thinking.

"Oh. Oh, right." For a second Haley thought she saw a flash of emotion in Nathan's eyes, but a moment later he looked just as laid-back as he had before, so she assumed she imagined it. "Yeah, okay," he continued. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow, then."

"Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow."

Nathan nodded and turned, starting to make his way back down the hall.

"Uh…goodnight," Haley called out.

"Night," Nathan replied over his shoulder, before returning to the elevator and back to the comfort of his hotel room.


	5. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: **Thank you to all you lovely reviewers and the oh so pretty Diane.

**Chapter Four**

_**The Player's Handbook Rule Number Three:**_

_Always make eye contact. _

_The first time you speak to a woman, look her directly in the eye. If you're looking at the floor, she'll think you're shy (and, no matter what they tell you, that is not a good thing). If you're checking her out, she'll think you're only interested in one thing (and okay, you are only interested in one thing, but don't make it so obvious). If you're looking at the woman on the other side of the room, why are you talking to _this_ girl in the first place?_

The next morning Haley was boarding a plane on her way to Los Angeles. She showed her boarding pass to the stewardess who flashed a practised smile her way before pointing out the direction Haley had to go to find her seat. Haley began moving forward but when the strap of her carry-on bag started to fall down she stopped to adjust it. As she did so, she glanced over her shoulder at the man behind her. The stewardess gave him a much wider smile as she pointed him in the same direction she had Haley but, surprisingly, he didn't react to it.

Nathan had been acting weird all morning. Ever since he had come down to meet her and Brooke in the hotel lobby more than an hour ago, he had been quiet. He had looked like he had literally just woken up and so at first his silence in the car ride to the airport hadn't warranted suspicion. Haley had assumed he was just tired from lack of sleep. However, since then he had remained quiet despite appearing more energised than before. It wasn't that he was ignoring her; he did speak to her if she spoke to him, he was just…cordial. And cordial Nathan was starting to freak her out.

After they had checked in he had wandered off around the airport in one direction while she and Brooke had roamed in another; Brooke intent on doing some shopping during their short waiting time. It was only after they had met up again at the gate and the three of them were on their way to actually enter the plane that Brooke announced she intended to switch seats with Nathan. When they had checked in they had been given a window and aisle seat and another window seat a few rows behind that. The boarding passes had assigned Brooke and Haley the two seats together and Nathan the separate seat, however, Brooke said she had a lot of work to do and wanted to get as much as possible done before they landed so she had convinced Nathan to switch seats with her.

There hadn't been a lot of convincing to do, Haley recalled. Brooke had explained that she wanted to sit alone so that she could concentrate on her work rather than be distracted in wanting to talk to Haley and had only had to ask him once before he agreed. Totally cordial-like. Haley was beginning to wonder if this was the same Nathan she'd met – Gosh, had it been only yesterday when they'd met?

She looked back over her shoulder once more as if to remind herself that yes, it had only been one day. He didn't notice her looking at him as he was busy checking out the seat row numbers, which reminded Haley that that was what she ought to be doing rather than wondering what had gotten into him, so she resumed her task until they finally got to their seats. Haley stopped in front of the row, as did Nathan, who took his bag off his shoulder as he opened the overhead luggage compartment.

"Do you want me to put that up here for you?" he asked Haley, gesturing to her bag.

"No, thanks. I can keep it under the seat in front of me," she assured him since her bag wasn't very large.

He then moved to put his bag on top while she slid in and sat next to the window. After putting his bag away, Nathan looked down again, and seemed to stop in his tracks.

"Is something wrong?" Haley asked, noticing his expression.

"No, it's just…I just normally sit in the window seat."

"Oh. So do I," Haley admitted.

"Right." Nathan stayed standing, moving into the row when someone walked past, but then stepping back out again after they had gone by. "I don't suppose you would consider trading then?"

"What, you mean like you get the window this plane ride and next time I get the window?" Haley thought, not opposed to that idea.

"Actually more like I get the window all plane rides," Nathan admitted.

Haley raised her eyebrows at him. "Well, where's the trade in that?"

"I trade you this aisle seat for your window seat."

Haley scoffed. "No. I sat here first."

"What, so now we're in kindergarten?" Nathan said pointedly, but kept his voice low so the other passengers couldn't hear.

"I think we're in kindergarten already with you fighting over which seat you get," Haley commented before leaning down to slide her bag underneath the seat in front.

Nathan looked like he was about to argue the point further when the same stewardess who had smiled at him earlier walked past and asked him to sit down. He did so, and strapped on his seatbelt, but Haley could tell he did it reluctantly.

He immediately reached over her and pulled up the window shade which she had pulled down only seconds ago because the glare of the sun was in her eyes.

"Hey!" she exclaimed a little louder than she intended to.

"All the shades have to be up when the plane takes off," Nathan stated, something that Haley had forgotten.

"Oh, right."

He didn't say anything, simply settling back in his seat. He seemed irritated and much less of the calm self he had been not too long ago. A small smile had started to form on her lips, before she realised she was doing so and quickly wiped it off her face. She was smiling because he had reverted from being cordial to irritating? Something had to be wrong with her.

Shaking her head she decided to get comfortable on this thankfully short plane ride. She glanced to her right at Nathan, but when he didn't notice her as he was staring straight ahead, Haley took out the in-flight entertainment guide and started to flip through it. It didn't take long before the plane took off and they were on their way. Although Haley noticed him gripping the arm rests rather tightly during take-off Nathan didn't make any move towards conversation, so she didn't either. As she reclined her seat backwards, she was careful not to recline it too much. She hated it when the person sitting in front of her in the plane pushed their seat so far back it was practically on her lap, so she made sure she didn't do that to anyone else. She then settled back in her seat and began reading a book. She was so engrossed in it that when Nathan started to tug her arm half an hour later it took her a few seconds to realise he was doing so.

"What?" she snapped, looking up at him.

"Put your seatbelt on," he said urgently. "Didn't you hear the captain's announcement?"

"What was the announcement?"

"To put your seatbelt on!" he repeated, and pointed to the seatbelt sign up in front of them that was flashing.

"Oh," Haley muttered, leisurely putting her book down as she fumbled with her belt.

"Besides, haven't you felt the plane move?" Nathan wondered.

"Well, of course it's moving. We're flying," Haley stated, unable to help the "Duh!" tone in her voice.

Nathan just glared at her. "Of course we're flying," he said through gritted teeth, "I meant-" He broke off when the plane jumped in mid-air slightly. "I meant the way it's been doing that. Haven't you felt the past few times it did? Just how interesting is the thing you're reading?"

Haley moved her book to the side of her lap closer to the window so Nathan wouldn't comment on her favourite Nicholas Sparks novel she was indulging in. "It's just turbulence," she stated. She may not have flown much but she'd already experienced mild turbulence before on her flight back from the publishing headquarters to North Carolina. Although she had still been a newbie at flying, she hadn't found the experience all that frightening. Now, if oxygen masks popped out, then she'd be worried, but she could handle a little turbulence.

She was about to tell Nathan exactly that when the plane jumped once more, only this time it wasn't quite so slight.

"Just turbulence," Nathan muttered and it was then that Haley noticed his hands were gripping the arm rests tight just like they had done during take-off.

Haley watched him curiously as he kept his eyes transfixed on either the seatbelt sign or the open window. "Nathan?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you fly often?"

"Uh, not all the time, but I have flown quite a bit," he admitted, looking at her wonderingly.

"But you don't like to fly?"

The look on his face told her she had hit the nail on its head before he even started to deny. "It's fine," he said casually and shrugged his shoulders.

"You know, if you had said you wanted the window seat bec-"

"I did say I wanted the window seat and you said no," he interrupted.

Haley frowned as she surveyed the side of his face since he was no longer looking at her. She had meant that if he had admitted he wanted to sit there because he was afraid of flying she would have gladly given him the seat. However, he didn't seem anywhere near admitting verbally what his body language gave away anyway. He was frozen stiff in his position, in comparison to his normal relaxed demeanour. Realising that he wouldn't be in this position if Brooke hadn't asked to change seats, Haley felt bad, especially since he had been nice all morning.

"Okay, that's true," she said calmly. "Would you like to sit here now?"

"No, it's fine."

Haley sighed. "You can sit here like you wanted t-"

"I don't need to sit there. I'm perfectly fine here," he lied, still not looking at her.

Haley pouted, staring at the side of his face. She was trying to be nice and give him what he wanted, but he was refusing! She had half a mind to just sit back and let him suffer through it, but, against her better judgement, decided to give it once last try and began to unlock her seatbelt.

"What are you doing? The sign's still on!" Nathan told her.

"I know, but I really have to go to the bathroom."

"You're not supposed to leave your seat until after the sign's off and there's definitely no more turbulence."

"But I really, really have to go," Haley stressed. "The bathroom's right here," Haley pointed to where the bathroom was located only two rows behind them. "I won't be long."

Nathan stared at her like she had lost her mind. "And if the plane goes belly-up while you're in there?"

"It's not going to; the turbulence is really little. And if it does," she added when Nathan opened his mouth to argue, "I'll hold onto the counter really tight." Having undone the belt, Haley sat forward in the chair. "And, just so you know," she said casually, "I'm not like reserving this seat for when I get back-"

Nathan looked at her like she was crazy – in fact, maybe she was. "All seats are reserved on a plane."

Haley sighed, exasperated, before continuing, "Yes I know – but if there was someone else who wanted to sit here, I wouldn't mind sitting in their seat instead. You know, if anyone asks to sit here."

"Right," Nathan deadpanned. His expression told Haley he knew exactly what she meant, but she stood up anyway. Assuming Nathan wouldn't want to take off his seatbelt long enough to stand up for her, she didn't ask him to and managed to climb over his legs by standing on her tiptoes. The bathroom was only a few steps away so it wasn't long before she was inside and staring at her reflection in the tiny mirror.

Haley frowned at what she saw; they had hardly begun their journey and already her hair was a mess! She finger combed it even though she knew it would mess itself up again in a few minutes, but she had to find something to do while Nathan moved to her seat.

However, when she stepped out of the bathroom and walked back to her row she discovered Nathan was sitting exactly where she left him, in the aisle seat.

"Wh-What are you doing?" she sputtered.

"I'm sitting in my seat like the captain told us to," Nathan said.

"Well. Fine," Haley said finally, staring daggers at him before standing on tip-toes once more again to inch over him; she had one leg back inside the row, but just as she started to move the other, the plane jerked and she fell backwards, right onto Nathan's lap.

Her hands immediately came up to steady herself and ended up grasping onto his shoulders at the same time he wrapped his arms around her waist.

The plane was soon flying smoothly once more but Haley remained frozen in her seat, well, Nathan's seat rather. It was just sort of strange being so close to him. She'd been too shocked yesterday morning when he had pressed up against her to really take note of anything, but now it was like she could feel him all around her. His face was completely level with hers and she could look into his eyes without having to tilt her head upwards…they were a really nice shade of blue. And his body felt nice and warm in comparison to the cold air on the plane. Especially where his hands were resting on her lower back.

She opened her mouth to say something, but he cut her off. "Didn't I tell you not to get out of your seat?" he demanded.

"I-Well…"

Shaking his head, Nathan grumbled nonsensically before moving his hands round to her hips so he could lift her up out of his lap and place her down in the window seat as if she weighed nothing.

"Put your seatbelt on," he told her when she didn't make a move to do anything.

"Yes, sir!" she snapped, jerkily putting her seatbelt on and then turning to her left side, intent on ignoring him for the remainder of the flight. She tried to get back into her book, but couldn't so she ended up staring out the window until she fell asleep.

Nathan wished that he could fall asleep. He had hoped his tiredness due to getting up so early would allow him to get some rest during the flight, but his inexplicable fear of flying seemed determined to keep him wide awake. Haley on the other hand had managed to fall into such a deep sleep it was starting to get on his nerves.

She was leaning against the side of the plane, her head propped up on the thin pillow provided by the aircraft. When she had first closed her eyes Nathan had assumed she was merely resting. However, not long after he began to hear her breathing deepen and the sound of something else. She wasn't snoring exactly, although that was what he was going to tell her she did when she woke up, it was more like she was making little asthmatic sounds. It was kind of cute the first few times, but as she continued to do so, it began to annoy him. Especially since she got to sleep through this awful plane ride, on which they'd had not just one but two bouts of turbulence, while he had to suffer through it all.

He glanced at Haley again and noticed how her body was kind of curled up in the corner. On closer inspection he also noticed that she seemed to be shivering.

It wasn't really that cold, but having only worn her thin sweatshirt over her t-shirt she couldn't help but shiver slightly. In spite of that she had managed to drift asleep, but when Haley woke up she felt rather warm. Blinking, she opened her eyes a tiny bit and realised someone had draped something over her. After letting out a yawn, she sat up and held the blanket in her hands. Her brow furrowed since she definitely couldn't recall there being a blanket in their seats before. She looked over at Nathan and noticed he didn't have a blanket.

"Where did this come from?"

Nathan jerked and took off his headphones, surprised by her comment since he hadn't notice her wake up. "What?"

She gestured to the blanket in her hands. "This. I don't remember it."

"I asked the stewardess for one for you."

Haley blinked. "You did?"

"You seemed cold," he said simply.

"Oh. But, um…" Haley stopped herself, and instead replied, "Thank you."

Nathan shrugged. "It's no big deal." He then muttered something that in her still half asleep haze Haley couldn't quite make out but she was sure she caught the words "sick" and "asthma".

"Huh?" Haley wondered, rubbing her eyes. "What about asthma?"

"Do you not have asthma?"

"No. What made you think that?"

"Just the way you were sleeping," Nathan admitted.

Haley stared at him, completely confused. "What?"

"Just…the way you were snoring-"

"I do not snore!" Haley exclaimed, a little louder than she should have.

"Well, it was either tiny snores or something wrong with your breathing like when you're sick and it sounded a lot like asthma to me-"

"I don't make any such noise-"

"How would you know?" Nathan asked. "You can't hear yourself when you're asleep."

Haley stopped for a second. He did have a point there. "Well, no one's ever told me I snored before."

"Well, maybe your boyfriends were all too polite to mention it," Nathan said pointedly.

By "no one" she had meant her sisters when she had had to share rooms with them, but she decided not to mention that to Nathan. Instead she settled back in her seat and pulled the blanket all the way up to her neck. "I don't snore. But thank you for the blanket," she said quietly.

Nathan chuckled. "You're welcome. And you do snore. But that's okay – it was kind of cute at first," he admitted. When she glanced at him curiously, he repeated seriously, "At first."

And even though she tried to prevent it, Haley couldn't help but laugh.

* * *

"How long does it take you to answer a phone?" 

Nathan blinked for a second, surprised by the greeting, although not so much by the voice. "Well, hello to you too, big brother."

"Seriously, Nathan. I got the hotel to ring your room ages ago since you weren't answering your cell phone. One book signing and already you think you're the Brad Pitt of the self-help book world?" Lucas teased.

"I didn't answer my cell phone because I was in the bathroom, which I just got out of now," he explained. Once they had arrived and checked in at the hotel, with Haley's room being only a few doors down from his, Nathan had straightaway hopped in the shower to wash off that plane smell. The phone had rung while he'd been changing, and although Nathan had no qualms walking across the room half, or even not, dressed, he hadn't thought answering the phone while having one leg in his jeans and one out would be the best idea movement wise. "I'm a little surprised you didn't call me yesterday night actually; I thought you said you wanted to know all about how the book signing went." Not that Nathan was complaining really; if Lucas had called he might have interrupted his and Haley's non-date – right, because that went so well, he thought to himself.

"I was going to, but I got busy with work. However, now you can come downstairs and tell me all about it."

It took Nathan a second before he caught on to the "downstairs" part of Lucas' comment. "What?"

"Yes, I'm in L.A. and in your hotel."

"How? I know you said you were going to come visit during the tour but I thought that was only next week."

"It was, but one of the guys at the company had business in L.A. tonight and tomorrow but he had to cancel so I said I'd do it and rearranged the days I took leave from to be the following few. I'll explain the whole thing to you later but right now I'm still standing at the front desk and don't feel like telling my life story to the hotel staff as well as all the people checking in. Plus, the concierge is giving me the eye; I think he wants the phone back."

Nathan laughed. "Maybe he just likes you."

"Very funny."

"You were the one who said he's 'giving you the eye'," Nathan reminded him.

Lucas chose to ignore his younger, and very annoying, brother. "Are you going to come down so we can have lunch or what? I'm starved."

"I'll be down in a minute."

Nathan had reached the door when the hotel room phone rang again. He crossed the room in four wide steps and picked up the receiver. "What now?"

"Oh, I, er…sorry to bother you."

Nathan winced when he heard the soft female voice on the other end of the phone. "Haley?"

"Hi."

"Sorry, I thought you were someone else."

"No, that's okay; I didn't mean to bother you."

"You're definitely not bothering me," he assured her. When she didn't say anything he asked, "Was there something you wanted?"

"Actually, I was wondering what you were doing this afternoon. I hadn't decided what I was doing for lunch yet but I thought maybe we could go get some food…together," she finished.

"Haley, that sounds great, but I just made plans to meet my brother for lunch."

"Your brother?"

"Yeah, he just showed up to visit, but you know, you could come with us if you-"

"Oh, no, that's not necessary."

"Really, he won't mind," Nathan said certainly.

"No, it's fine. I'll just go get something myself. You have fun with your brother; I'll see you at the signing tomorrow morning. Bye."

The click that signalled she had the phone down sounded before Nathan could reply.

* * *

The next day, around mid-morning, Haley was preparing for her second book signing. However, as the minutes ticked by towards the time when the signing was actually about to take place Haley was disappointed to discover that Nathan still hadn't turned up. Checking her watch, she knew he had more than enough time to arrive with a decent break before the signing began, but she was starting to wonder where he was. 

She had ended up having lunch with Brooke the day before, but since Brooke had said she had work to get done in the evening Haley had merely ordered room service for her dinner. She hadn't thought about Nathan during all that time – well, not much – but from the moment she met Brooke in the morning and Brooke simply stated that Nathan would be "finding his own way to the signing" Haley's thoughts had gone into overdrive.

For some reason, she couldn't shake the suspicion that that he had lied to her on the phone. Yes, he had sounded sincere when he said he was going to lunch with his brother, but Nathan hadn't mentioned anything about him being in L.A. when they'd had their dinner together despite the fact that they had talked a little bit about his brother. And when Brooke had said that terribly vague comment as they were getting into the car, Haley couldn't help but think that must mean he hadn't spent the night at his hotel room.

Unfortunately, she was terribly curious about where he had spent it instead and that annoyed her. What was even more annoying was the fact that she was annoyed about it in the first place!

Sighing, Haley tried to concentrate on other things, like the fact that there'd be people coming to get her to sign her book – or not. She gulped as she remembered her emotions hadn't been all excitement the previous morning; there had been a tiny part of her that had worried no one would show up wanting to get her book signed. The sensible part of her brain had rationalised that the publishers wouldn't have set all this up if they hadn't considered it a viable project, but that little bit of doubt had lingered in her mind. And despite yesterday's success it was coming back to her once more.

Engaged as she was in this mental jumping back and forth Haley didn't spot the man coming in from the back entrance to join her in the front room amongst all the books.

"I'm guessing you're not a fan of the book."

Haley practically jumped at sound of an unfamiliar voice behind her. Once she turned around she noted the blonde man wasn't someone she recognised from the staff members she had met so far at the shop. Plus, he wasn't wearing a nametag. It took her a few seconds to work out his meaning; it was only when she noticed she was standing in front of a mini shelf fully stacked with one book, "The Player's Handbook," that she realised how her frowning would have looked from his angle.

"I was just worrying about something. But since you mentioned it, I guess I don't really agree with its principles."

"I didn't think it was the kind of book many women would read," the man commented as he stepped closer.

"Well, I actually haven't read it-" Haley admitted.

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Then how do you know you disagree with its principles?"

"Well, since I don't approve of the concept of 'playing' rather than dating I suppose whatever else is in there doesn't really make a difference."

"I guess that's valid. I'm Lucas by the way," he added.

"Lucas?" The name definitely struck a bell somewhere. "Nathan's brother?"

"Yep," he said before shaking her hand. "I assume you're Haley James?"

"Yes, that's me," she said enthusiastically with a wide grin. His brother actually was here. She noticed him wince as he moved and questioned, "Are you okay?"

"Fine, it's nothing really. I just had far too much too drink last night and although the worst of the hangover has passed I'm still not quite right."

"Do you and Nathan always drink a lot when you get together?"

"Depends on what you mean by a lot. But last night was specifically related to certain problems."

"Oh?"

"Of the female kind."

A smile spread across Haley's face. "Well, surely armed with Nathan's expertise you should be able to sort it out."

Lucas chuckled. "Yes, I should, shouldn't I? What was it he said…" He surprised her by picking up a copy of Nathan's book off the shelf and flipping it open to a specific page. "Okay, let's see…According to my brother first impressions are crucial," he noted and glanced up at her. "How am I doing on that score so far?"

Grinning, Haley told him, "Not too bad."

"Okay, well, what else?" he wondered as he perused the page once more. "Hmmm…eye contact. I don't really know how much of that I've been doing. I suppose that means I should start." This time when he looked up at her, he stared straight at her face as if he were concentrating but it just looked like he was squinting really hard.

Haley giggled at the display, and was about to comment when she heard the sound of someone's throat clearing. She looked to her right and found Nathan had joined them.

"Hey there, little brother."

"I was wondering where you had got to."

"I ran into Haley here. We were just testing out your book. How do you think I'm doing?" he asked her.

"Pretty well," she replied, before letting out another laugh.

"You hear that, Nate? There's hope for me yet."

Nathan chose to ignore Lucas and instead turned to address Haley. "Brooke says she wants us to get ready."

"Oh, sure," she replied. "I'll see you after the signing," she told Lucas before going to sit at the table that had been set up for them.

"I thought you had gotten lost or something," Nathan commented, after Haley had left the brothers.

"You said you had to talk to your PR person so I just thought I'd take a look around."

"Ok. By the way, my 'PR Person' asked about you."

Lucas furrowed a brow. "But I've never met her. You said her name was Brooke, right?"

"Yeah, she saw you in the room when I was talking to her; must have been before you slipped out. She wanted to know how long you're going to be joining us on the tour."

"Is she worried I'll get in the way?"

"Actually I think she was more interested in whether or not you were single, although she didn't ask me that," Nathan told him.

Lucas grinned. "Really? Well, it looks like I was complaining about that bad date for nothing. I've barely been in L.A. for a day and already got two women interested."

Nathan stiffened. "Just the one. Haley was only joking with you."

Lucas looked at his younger brother curiously. "Yeah, I know she was; I was joking too, Nathan," he admitted. "Do you like her?"

"No."

The way Lucas raised his eyebrows showed exactly how much he believed that. "Seeing as how this is probably not the best time I'll let that one pass – for now. Although I should probably tell you that she's more of the dating than playing type-"

"I've known her longer than you have; don't you think I would know that?"

Lucas' eyebrows inched higher at Nathan's clipped tone but simply said, "You should probably go get ready."

Nathan nodded and left his brother by the shelf as he headed towards the table where Haley already sat. If only it was so easy to leave behind the thoughts he had placed in his mind as well.


	6. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: Hey guys! I'm sorry I took so long to get this chapter finished, but I have to say a big thank you to all of you that left reviews; they really spurred me on with the writing. And thanks to Diane for betaing:) **

**Chapter Five**

_Minneapolis, Minnesota_

Haley stifled a yawn as she watched Brooke pace up and down the small diner, yakking away on her cell phone. It may have only been their third signing that they had finished that morning, but already the fast pace of the tour was beginning to get to her.

For someone who hadn't travelled much, she'd done more than her fair share this week. After their book signing in Los Angeles the previous morning, they had had to leave the hotel soon to get to the airport in time for their flight. They had barely landed in Denver before they had to run to get their connecting plane to Minneapolis. Haley had foregone dinner in place of the much needed rest she hadn't been able to gain on the flight, but her early morning wake-up call had interrupted that, after what felt like only minutes since she had closed her eyes, even though it had actually been hours.

She had managed to appear bright-eyed for her fans though, as it was slowly starting to sink into Haley that her book did have fans, way more than she had ever imagined. She loved meeting them and signing their copies of her book, she just wished they didn't have to hop from city to city quite so fast. However, she supposed the company wasn't sending her around the country to have a vacation so she had to follow their pace.

"You're fucking kidding me!"

Haley's mouth formed an 'O' shape as she glanced up from her milkshake to find it had in fact been Brooke yelling into her cell phone, loud enough for everyone in the diner to hear. She wasn't sure who had called or what they were talking about, but whatever it was Brooke did not look happy. She was still pacing the diner, and how she had managed to balance in those high heels she was wearing for so long Haley had no clue. She just wished Brooke would sit down or go outside to finish the conversation, but she didn't want to aggravate her anymore than she clearly already was, so Haley just sat back in the booth.

After the signing that morning was over, Haley had quietly been minding her own business in the hotel, not the least bit interested in what Nathan and Lucas were up to, when Brooke had showed up at her room and asked Haley if she wanted to accompany her to the café down the street. Haley had agreed and had been enjoying their outing, glad to have found someone she was getting along with on this trip, until Brooke's cell phone had rung.

Finally, Brooke slammed her cell phone shut – without bidding the caller "Goodbye," Haley noted – and stomped back to their booth before sliding in so she could stare across the table at Haley. "This is unbelievable! God sucks!"

Haley raised her eyebrows. "God just called your cell phone?" she asked, stifling a laugh. "You talked like that to God?" When Brooke simply glared, Haley commented, "You're the one who mentioned God."

"Well, he's the one who controls the weather isn't he?" Brooke demanded.

She didn't see what the weather had to do with anything, but Haley put her milkshake down and looked over her shoulder to glance out the large window. "Brooke, the weather's fine. Better than fine actually; it looks really nice even if it is a little chilly."

Brooke just shook her head. "Well, here in Minneapolis it may be fine and dandy but in Chicago it's snowing!"

"And this is a problem because…" Haley trailed off, still not seeing the point. "Those weather fronts already passed through here before we arrived so we won't be affected."

This only caused to infuriate Brooke further. "Earth to Haley!" she exclaimed. "Chicago is our next stop!!"

"Oh!" Haley exclaimed, finally clued in, surprised she had forgotten. "Did something happen to the location we're signing at?"

"No, no; the problem is we can't get there in the first place! We're supposed to leave for Chicago tomorrow morning but the weather is so bad that the airport there has suspended all outgoing and incoming flights until further notice!"

"Oh my gosh! Well, what will we do? Could we maybe switch signings around? We could go to one of our later stops where it's not snowing and then turn around and go back to Chicago," Haley started to suggest but Brooke was already shaking her head.

"HQ told me that they've already tried that but because we've already rescheduled so many dates there weren't enough people willing to reschedule again for us to do that. Plus, we already spent enough money changing all the flights the first time. Either we make the signing dates as they are now or we have to cancel."

"Cancel!" Haley exclaimed. "We can't do that!"

"And we're not going to; we just have to make it to Chicago on time."

"Okay, then," Haley replied. "Can't we take the train?"

"I'm afraid not."

"The train can't have been suspended as well! Is it really so bad the tracks have frozen over?" Haley asked, horrified.

"No, it hasn't, it's just that although your signing in Chicago is only the day after tomorrow I have to be there tomorrow afternoon for a meeting."

"Okay, so…" Haley prodded.

"Well, even though they haven't suspended the train, the schedule is such that the earliest train gets us there too late for my meeting."

"But we don't have any other options, what else can we-"

"Actually, we do. We're going to drive there."

"Drive?"

"Yeah."

"We're going to drive all the way to Chicago?" Haley repeated.

"Yes," Brooke said simply.

"But won't that take the whole day?"

"It depends on traffic and bathroom breaks, but apparently it should be about seven hours. Well, maybe a bit more," Brooke realised, "since we'll have to drive carefully in places where the roads might be slippery, but still, it won't take the whole day. HQ are talking to a rental car company now to get them to send a van down to the hotel tomorrow morning."

Haley's face wrinkled up as she frowned once more. "Trying to? So it's still not for sure, then?"

"It is definite, Haley, we'll get everything sorted out; we just need to finalise details so we should probably go back to the hotel now."

Haley nodded her agreement and quickly stood as she put on her coat. Brooke took a final slurp of her drink before doing the same. As they walked out the little café Haley continued their conversation. "You're absolutely sure everything will turn out fine?"

"Yes, Haley!"

"Well, then why were you so mad about it all just seconds ago?" she questioned as they made their way down the road to the hotel. "Or are you saying that was your happy face?"

Brooke gave Haley a look, before responding, "Why are you authors always so sarcastic! I was upset, of course, because we had a plan and it was screwed with, but it's fixed now –"

"It's in the process of being fixed –"

"Yeah, so now it's all being sorted and everything's fine. You know, it'll probably be a lot of fun!" Brooke enthused suddenly.

"Fun?"

"Hello! Road trip! Haven't you ever been on a road trip before?"

Haley's nose wrinkled as she answered, "I've been to a few places in North Carolina with my parents in their RV and some field trips when I was at school too-"

"Oh, but that's not a proper road trip – it doesn't count as a road trip if you go with school, and certainly not with your folks. This trip is going to be so much fun; us girls on the road!" Brooke began excitedly.

"You mean us girls plus Nathan," Haley pointed out.

Brooke laughed. She opened her mouth to say something but then all of a sudden her expression changed.

"What is it, Brooke? Was there something else they told you in the call?"

"No, it's not that," Brooke assured her. "I just remembered about Lucas. You know, Nathan's brother. Is he coming to Chicago as well?"

"Oh, I'm not sure." Haley had spoken to Lucas only a few times, although she had enjoyed his conversation. Especially on the plane from Denver to Minneapolis when his and Nathan's seats had been directly behind hers and Brooke's, and he had teased Nathan the whole way through for being afraid of flying. "Oh, wait! I remember he said he was tagging along for a few stops so he must be.

"He did mention that to me as well, but he also said something about going back before joining us again later and I can't remember when that was. I've only spoken to him once, when we were in the airport in L.A.," Brooke explained.

Haley shrugged. "I thought it sounded like he was coming to Chicago, but you can always check when we get back to the hotel," she responded, although when they turned at the traffic lights she saw the hotel was just down the street.

Brooke nodded. "It's not like he can't join us on the drive."

"Uh, yeah…is that okay?"

"Why wouldn't it be?"

"I don't know, I just thought the van was for us because we had to be there at a certain time and stuff. Would it be allowed for him to come with us?"

"Hello, when we're on the road, I'm the boss," Brooke pointed out proudly, earning a laugh from Haley.

"True enough," she acknowledged as they entered the hotel.

"Speaking of…" Brooke trailed off, leaving it up to Haley to follow her line of vision and realise she was referring to Lucas who was sitting at the bar in the lobby, "I'm going to go and check whether or not he's coming with us and after that I'll finish all the other stuff I have to do."

"Sure. Just let me know what's going on once everything's been confirmed."

Brooke nodded. "Sure, I'll give you a call when it's done. See you later, Haley," she said before heading over to the bar.

"Bye!" With that Haley headed over to the elevator and pressed the button to take her up to her room. She surveyed the lobby as she bounced on the balls of her feet, noticing Brooke gracefully slide onto the bar stool next to Lucas.

Just then, the ding of the elevator sounded, letting Haley know it had arrived at the ground floor. When the doors opened they revealed a mass of people so she instinctively stepped back to give them room to get past her. They all did, until there was only one person left at the back.

"Nathan!" Haley said, surprised, when she noticed it was him. It shouldn't have been a shock to see him since he was, after all, a guest in the hotel, she just hadn't expected to. He had changed out of the smart clothes he had worn to the signing and into dark blue jeans and a light blue polo shirt. The colour immediately made her think of his eyes and she instinctively sought them out, a little embarrassed to find them roaming her body in much the same way she had just roamed his. Only she was just wearing jeans and another one of her old hooded sweaters. Not that that mattered of course; she didn't care what Nathan thought of her appearance.

Stepping out of the lift and coming to stand beside her, he smiled. "Hey. Did you go out?"

"Yeah, Brooke and I just went to this café," Haley explained. "Oh! Speaking of Brooke, she got a call when we were there - she's actually telling Lucas about it now-"

"Oh?" Nathan looked over to the bar and a smirk graced his lips when he spotted them. "I guess I should hang back for a bit then," he said, raising his eyebrows in jest.

"She was-huh?" Haley wondered, having been about to explain the situation to him.

"I just said that I should probably give them some alone time before rejoining Lucas."

Haley frowned. "Well, what she's telling him is more important for you than for him."

Nathan glanced at the bar and saw his brother say something that Brooke clearly enjoyed judging by the way she laughed in reply and placed her hand on his shoulder. However, the short brown-haired girl in front of him had her back turned to the display so she simply continued to frown up at him with her small nose all scrunched up. "And what is she telling him?" he asked.

"It's snowing in Chicago and the airport has postponed all flights until further notice so we're getting a van for us to drive there tomorrow, but we weren't sure whether Lucas was going to be coming to Chicago or not."

"Okay, thanks for letting me know. He is coming to Chicago, actually, but somehow I doubt that's what they're talking about."

"What?" Hands on hips, Haley turned around fully prepared to point them out to Nathan and ask him what girl at the bar he had been focusing on instead, when her eyes landed on the pair once again. Even to the casual, disinterested observer, it was obvious they were not talking about anything relating to the _weather_. "Oh."

"I'm a little surprised," Nathan admitted, "because when he first showed up he told me he was going to take another break from girls, even though that's all he's done since the divorce, but they seem to have hit it off." When Haley didn't reply he added, "Don't tell me you didn't notice before."

Haley turned back around to face Nathan before responding, "Well, maybe I'm not one of those people who thinks a boy and a girl talking and getting along well has to automatically mean more than friendship."

Nathan rolled his eyes at her. "They haven't been _talking_ since yesterday, they've been _flirting_. I would have thought someone with 'an expert eye for human behaviour' would have surely noticed that."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Haley demanded, folding her arms.

Nathan shrugged. "Isn't that what _Cosmo_ said about you in their review? The quote is on the cover your book. Or maybe it was _Us Weekly_?"

Haley remembered the quote but just scoffed at Nathan. "You're just jealous because _Cosmo_'s review of your book wasn't good at all! They only gave it 2 stars!"

"Well, of course they didn't like it, _Cosmo_'s a women's magazine! And how did you know that?" Nathan inquired, curious.

"The same way you knew that quote about my book," Haley countered, but Nathan immediately shook his head.

"No; when they sent my book to re-print they added some quotes from reviews, but not from that one," Nathan pointed out.

"Oh," Haley mouthed, realising that that was something she had learnt before she had come on the tour, when she had thought it might be a good idea to know a bit more about the people she would be signing with and had done some research on them all, unaware at the time that she would end up only signing with one. However, she didn't want to give Nathan the satisfaction of knowing that she had ever thought him worth researching about so she just muttered, "I must have read it somewhere," before pressing the button to open the doors to the elevator which had closed automatically once Nathan had gotten off it. "And, for your information," she added as she stepped into the lift, "that quote you referred to was from a review by the _New York Times_. Did they review your book?"

Smirking, Nathan replied, "Actually, yes they did."

"Well – Well, did you," Haley began but was cut off by the elevator doors closing with her inside and Nathan on the other side of them. Before she could stop herself, Haley punched the button to open the doors again and they did so, revealing Nathan standing in exactly the same place as before, now smirking even wider. Ignoring the look on his face, she continued, "Well, did you make their best seller list?"

Nathan shook his head. "No, I didn't," he answered, clearly amused as he knew Haley, in fact, had.

Haley wasn't sure what variation of "So there!" she was about to exclaim, but the doors closed again before she could. However, this time she punched the button to her floor instead, glad that no one else got into the elevator on the way up, allowing her to simmer in her own thoughts privately until she reached her hotel room and was able to take out her frustration by flopping down stomach first onto the bed and burying her head in the pillows.

* * *

A few hours later, Haley had calmed down and was mad at herself for having a stupid outburst like that and making a fool of herself. It didn't matter that Brooke and Lucas seemed to like each other; they were both nice and although she didn't think it was a very good idea for them to date, if it was what they wanted, she hoped that they were happy. And it definitely didn't matter that Nathan had noticed before her. 

There really hadn't been any need for that conversation to turn into a stupid argument. If those elevator doors hadn't closed, she may have ended up sticking her tongue out of him and, okay, so she may have done that before, but there was no need for it to happen again after they'd been mostly civil to each other since their dinner in San Francisco. Leaning back on the bed, and putting her feet under the covers, Haley smiled as she remembered how Nathan had gotten a blanket for her on their flight to L.A., but she quickly dropped it when she also recalled that he'd claimed she snored.

A knock on the door sounded, interrupting Haley's thoughts. She picked up the remote and switched off the television before getting out of bed and answering it.

Brooke grinned widely at Haley once the door opened. "Hey!"

"Hi, Brooke. What's up?"

"You asked me to let you know when everything had been sorted out regarding Chicago," she reminded her, stepping inside the room.

"Oh, yeah, but I thought you were going to call me about that. Not that I mind, of course," Haley assured her, closing the door. "So everything's taken care of, then?"

"Yep, I just finished finalising everything about half an hour ago."

"That's great."

"Yeah!" Brooke nodded and sat down on the side of the bed, while Haley moved to sit in the middle.

"Want a biscuit?" Haley offered her the packet of cookies she had been munching on while watching television, but Brooke shook her head.

"No, thanks. Actually, there was something else I wanted to mention," she added, turning towards Haley and folding one of her legs underneath the other.

"Yes?"

"You know how earlier I went to ask Lucas if he was coming to Chicago with us?"

Haley nodded rather than replying verbally since her mouth was full of the biscuit she had just bitten into.

"Well, when I went to ask him we were talking, right, and…"

"You like him," Haley interrupted.

"Wh-what?" Brooke said suddenly, looking Haley in the eye. "I wasn't going to say that."

"You weren't?"

"Well, okay, I was," Brooke admitted, grinning. "But, he is really cute, isn't he?"

Haley smiled back. "Yeah, he's kind of cute."

"Wait – you're not like into him or anything, right? Because I saw you guys talking yesterday but I didn't think-"

"No, no, I'm not into him," Haley cut her off. "He seems cool, but, no."

"Okay. But, wait, how did you know I liked him?" Brooke wondered. "I wasn't too obvious, was I? I mean, sometimes you shouldn't be too subtle because, well, you know what guys can be like right, but too obvious isn't always a good idea either."

"You weren't too obvious! I just noticed…" she trailed off, but Brooke continued to wait for an explanation. "Uh…Nathan said something and I –"

"Nathan said something? Did he tell you that Lucas had said something about me?" she asked, sitting up straighter and looking at Haley expectantly.

"Uh…no not exactly, he just said he noticed you two had been flirting and then I noticed it too."

"But, what else did he say?" Brooke inquired, crossing her legs as she leaned in conspiratorially.

"I don't know," Haley replied, even though she knew very well how the rest of their conversation had played out.

"But didn't he say anything at all about Lucas? Has Lucas talked to him about me? Did he mention anything about Lucas' personal life at all?"

Haley had been about to reply in the negative, when Brooke's third question sparked a recollection in her mind. "Oh wait! He did mention a divorce!"

"Lucas is divorced?" Brooke's eyes grew wide and for a moment Haley regretted letting out that information until she added, "Oh the poor thing. Do you know how long ago it was?"

Haley shook her head. "He just mentioned it in passing."

Brooke frowned. "I wonder if it was difficult. I knew a man that hot could not have gone this long without being taken! Well, he is definitely in need of some Brooke Davis," she finished with a wink. Haley was about to respond when she suddenly exclaimed, "Oh my gosh, this is perfect!"

Brooke's excited expression confused her. "Lucas' divorce?"

"No, Nathan! You can get information for me!"

"What? Brooke, no!" Haley said firmly.

"Oh, come on, Haley! I thought we were friends," Brooke pouted.

"Well, yeah, maybe, but…it's not like we really knew each other before this trip, I mean…I still don't know you that well – or Nathan, for that matter, so how am I supposed to get information out of him?" she argued.

"But, when the two of you are there and have nothing else to do for so long, surely you can just ask him a bit about Lucas?"

"Brooke, it's not like we have a lot of time to chat to each other when we're signing autographs!" Haley pointed out.

"Oh, but I didn't mean then, I – oh. I hadn't gotten to that part of the conversation yet, had I?" Brooke realised, sheepish.

Haley's brow furrowed in one part confusion, two parts suspicion. "What part?"

"You know how we have to drive to Chicago?"

"Yes?"

"Well, we couldn't get a van."

"What? Brooke, I thought you said everything was taken care of!"

"It is! We just couldn't get a van so they asked about a car, but all their cars are too small to fit all four of us plus all our luggage. _So_, we're going in two cars," Brooke emphasised, hoping Haley would realise what she meant.

Haley, however, missed it, instead replying automatically, "Why can't we just get a van from another place? There has to be more than one rental company."

Brooke just shrugged her shoulders. "Because it's this whole company issue."

"What?"

"You know, companies have ties. We get discount if we use this company's service so they're the ones who provide us with cars and drivers at all our locations." Brooke waved her hand as if it wasn't important. "Bottom line, they don't have any vans free tomorrow and we're too stingy to get one from somewhere else so we're taking two cars, capiche?" When Haley nodded, Brooke continued, "Good. Now, you and Nathan will be taking one car and Lucas and I will be taking the other car. Okay, bye, see you in the morning. I've still got some packing to do," she finished jumping up from the bed and making a start for the door to get away.

"Not so fast, Brooke Davis!" Haley yelled, before Brooke could make her escape. "I am not spending the whole day in a car with Nathan Scott!"

"It's not a whole day, just seven hours. That'll fly by."

"I don't care," Haley enunciated as she stood up as well.

"Oh, come on, Haley," Brooke pouted. "This is the perfect opportunity for me to get to know Lucas better; the two of us alone for eight hours on the open road," she said dreamily.

"I thought you said seven hours!"

"Seven, eight, what's the difference?" Brooke said, her fake smile plastered on her face. When Haley's frown didn't budge, Brooke pouted once more. "Please, Haley! Come on! I'll do a favour for you in return! I'll book you a better room than Nathan in the hotel in Chicago – would you like a suite?" she offered hopefully.

"No! You can't bribe me, Brooke!"

"Haley, it won't be so bad! I thought you guys were getting along better and not fighting and stuff."

"Well, sometimes we aren't, but he just brings out the worst in me, okay?" Haley admitted. "It's like I'm always Jekyll and then Nathan arrives and out pops Hyde!"

"Well, even if that's true, what's the worst that could happen?"

"Didn't you read the book? I could wind up killing someone!"

Brooke just rolled her eyes. "You'll be on the Interstate for most of the trip! There'll be no one around for you to kill!"

"Nathan will be there!"

Brooke folded her arms as she reverted to her "PR" voice, "Haley, stop being so overdramatic. Nathan is not going to drive you to commit murder! In fact, I think riding with Nathan would be good for you."

Haley scoffed. "You're just saying that because you want to ride with Lucas!"

"Well, maybe that's why I thought you should at first but now that I think about it, this trip could be a good lesson in the two of you learning how not to kill each other!"

"But we already tried that in San Francisco and it didn't work, okay?"

"Really?" Brooke wondered, interested by this new piece of information. "What did you do?"

"We just went to dinner. It didn't go well. End of story."

Brooke made a "Pfft!" sound and flipped her brunette locks over her shoulder. "Haley James, it is my job to help you and I think you going to Chicago with Nathan could be crucial to the success of this book signing and your entire career as an author. I mean, imagine if your relationship with him just gets worse and worse and the two of you can't even sit next to each other to sign books. It may end up that you want to finish them separately so one of you has to go back home and we both know that Nathan won't let that person be him and so it'll have to be you and you'll go back to little Tree Hill and HQ will say they'll reschedule your signings for you but really they'll think 'Oh that Haley James, she couldn't tough it out for one month with a guy she didn't like and you're always going to meet people you don't like in business. If she couldn't handle that, then who knows what she'll-'"

"Oh all right! Will you just stop that? I'll go to stupid Chicago with Nathan. You are so manipulative, you know that?" Haley glared at Brooke as she accused her.

"How do you think I worked my way to the top? – Don't answer that," she added before grinning and wrapping Haley up in a tight bear hug, although Haley was too annoyed to reciprocate. "Thank you so much! You're the best!"

"Don't think I'll forget what you said about owing me a favour," she retorted.

"Whatever you want," Brooke promised. "I'll see you tomorrow morning, Haley James." Brooke moved to leave the room once more and was in the hall with Haley about to close the door behind her when she suddenly remembered something.

"Hey, Brooke!"

"Yeah?" she called back, slightly afraid Haley had changed her mind.

"How are the cars going to get back from Chicago to Minneapolis?"

"Oh, well…" Brooke stopped when she realised that was one tiny detail she hadn't worked out. "I don't know! Thanks for reminding me! I'll call the company when I get back to my room."

"Any chance there'll be no way of them getting them back so we have to just go by train instead?"

Brooke punched the button to call the elevator as she shook her head. "No, they'll probably just have two of their guys from the Chicago branch drive them back."

"I was afraid you'd say that."


	7. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: **The play mentioned in this chapter is a real play, by J. M. Synge. It opened in 1907.**  
Author's Note: **Yes, it's finally an update! I'm so sorry this one took so very long, but the chapter is quite long so hopefully you guys aren't too annoyed? A big thank you to Diane for betaing this for me. :D

* * *

_**The Player's Handbook Rule Number Four:**_

_Gifts are okay, but not more than once, and nothing expensive. Jewellery should be avoided at all costs._

**Chapter Six**

The next morning Haley stood leaning against the rental car, her arms folded across her chest as she waited impatiently for her travelling companion to arrive. Brooke had asked her not to get cross with Nathan when the trip hadn't even started yet, but he was late. When she had come down from her hotel room with her bags, Lucas had informed her that Nathan had already put his bags in the trunk, but had gone back inside since he had forgotten something.

Brooke and Lucas had left soon after and since then five minutes had passed with no sign of Nathan. Haley was beginning to contemplate driving herself there and letting Nathan take the train – after all, unlike Brooke, he didn't have to be in Chicago until tomorrow – but before she was about to give in to the impulse and make her way to the driver's seat Nathan finally showed up.

Haley huffed as he took his own sweet time strolling down the main steps before coming up to her. "You're late," she informed him.

Nathan just grinned. "Well, good morning to you too, sunshine. And actually I was early, I just had to go back for something," he said as he opened the trunk and unzipped his smaller bag.

"What did you forget?"

Nathan held up the thin rectangular shaped case in his right hand. "My toothbrush."

Haley stared wide-eyed while he stuffed the toothbrush into his bag. "It took you that long to find a toothbrush? What, was it under your pillow or something?"

"I had to wait in line at reception to give back the room key," he explained.

"Well, you could have just bought a new one," Haley pouted.

"Will you calm down, it's not like we're going to be late for anything. And I like this one," Nathan said simply as he zipped the bag closed. "I've used it for a while so that the bristles are all smushed and fit around my teeth."

"That's a sign that you need a new one," she exclaimed.

"No, I only need a new one when the blue strip in the middle of the bristles has gone completely white, and it's only half-white at the moment," Nathan informed her, having locked the trunk.

"You know, that's an estimate. God, how old is your toothbrush really?"

Nathan raised one eyebrow at her. "Why are you so interested?"

"I happen to think good dental hygiene is very important," Haley stated, hands on her hips.

"I meant," Nathan said amused, "why are you so interested in _my_ dental hygiene. After all, it's not like you have any reason to be so concerned in what I do with my teeth...unless, of course, you plan on getting to know them real well," he finished with a smirk, wiggling his eyebrows.

"You're disgusting."

"Aw, come on," Nathan called out as Haley stormed away from him to get into the car. "My teeth are totally clean…I won't bite unless you ask me to!"

Haley sat down in the driver's seat and shut the door with a loud bang although it didn't completely drown out the noise of him laughing at his own joke. "You have five seconds to get into the car or I swear I will drive there without you!" she shouted.

Nathan sauntered over to Haley's door and bent down so he was level with the open window. "That would be a bad idea."

"Oh, really?" Haley glared at him. "What awful thing are you going to do to me if I leave you behind?"

"Nothing," Nathan shrugged. "It's just that if you leave without me you'll probably get lost since I'm the one with directions, remember?" he added, tapping his left jacket pocket.

Her mood distinctly souring, Haley realised he was right. She didn't know the way and, apparently, Brooke had found out yesterday that Nathan and Lucas had driven in this area when they went on a road trip all across the country in college. She, on the other hand, had never driven anywhere other than Tree Hill, and she didn't even have a great track record there, having had more than a few minor accidents in her time.

With an annoyed huff, Haley turned to her right to climb over the gears and move into the passenger seat. Nathan smiled as he opened the door to the driver's seat and sat down while Haley scooted down into her seat. Nathan put on his seatbelt, before glancing over at Haley to ask, "You ready?"

"Let's just get this over with."

"Are you sure this is the right way?"

Nathan sighed in frustration. The first part of their journey had been conducted mostly in silence since the radio didn't work, which had been boring, but at least it was painless. However, over the past fifteen minutes Haley kept questioning his driving, which was getting on his nerves. "I've already told you, Haley, yes, I'm sure."

"But we've been driving on this stretch of road for a really long time," she whined.

"It's a highway, that's what you do on them! Our turning doesn't come up for a while. Just trust me, okay?"

"Well, I don't," Haley said frankly. When he sent a pointed look her way she continued, "Look, I've never been on a long road trip with anyone other than my Dad driving and I don't want to get lost in the middle of nowhere."

"You mean, not with me?"

"Especially not with you. Can I please see the map?"

Nathan took a hand off the wheel to take the map out of his inner jacket pocket and pass it over to her. "Here."

"Thank you." Haley opened it up, surprised to find it was a black and white map on an ordinary piece of paper. "Wait, what is this? Is this a printout?"

"Yeah."

Noticing the text on the paper Haley exclaimed, "You got your directions from Google Maps?"

Nathan frowned, noticing how her voice had increased a few decibels again. "So?"

"So when Brooke said you had a map I thought she meant a proper map!"

"This is a proper map. Haven't you ever used Google Maps before?"

"No, I-"

"Well, you should, they're really good. And see, on the bottom of the page, they also tell you approximately how long you'll be on each road too."

"I cannot believe you're trusting our fates to something you got off the internet!"

"'Our fates'?" Nathan repeated. "Don't be so overdramatic."

"I am not being overdramatic, I am being practical. What if this thing turns out to be wrong and we get lost?"

"It's not going to be wrong but if we get lost then we ask someone for directions," Nathan said with a shrug.

"Ask who? In case you didn't notice, we haven't seen that many cars and it's not like many people would stop for us anyway. I can't see anything except r-" Haley stopped short of saying road when she did notice a lone building on the right side of the road just a little bit ahead of them. "Is that a gas station over there?"

Relieved at the change of topic, Nathan nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it looks like. But we don't need to stop there, we have enough gas."

"I need to stop there!"

"You need to go to the bathroom?" Nathan wondered, slowing down the car as they neared the station.

"No, I need to buy a proper map."

Annoyed, Nathan glared at her, an act that almost caused him to drive past the station completely if Haley hadn't let him know that he was about to. Despite his irritation, Nathan stopped the car anyway so he could buy something to drink. Although he had remembered to bring his snacks he'd forgotten to bring more than one small bottle of Gatorade, and he didn't expect Haley to share her water.

After he had parked, both of them got out of the car and headed for the small shop, although Nathan purposely walked slower past the gas pumps so that she could go on ahead of him. Once inside Nathan took his time choosing a drink and only headed to the cashier after he heard the door open and close again to signal Haley's exit. After he'd paid for his drink and began to head to the door Nathan thought he heard the woman wish him a pleasant journey; well that wasn't likely, he thought wryly.

When he got back in the car he noticed Haley was already poring over her newly acquired map with his one propped up on the dashboard for comparison, but he didn't say anything until he had put his purchase away. Then he leant sideways to look over her shoulder at the maps; the discovery made him pleased with himself but even more annoyed at her. "They're exactly the same!"

"They're not _exactly_ the same," she pouted, although she had yet to find a place where they significantly differed.

"What because yours is in colour? So if I had got a colour printout then you wouldn't have questioned it?"

"Colour has nothing to do with it. I just think it's better to have a proper map."

"But it's the same thing," Nathan stressed, "only it costs more! You may have never used Google Maps but there are lots of people who do! Don't you think they'd have been called on it by now if their maps were giving the wrong directions? Why do you have to be such a –" A heavy sigh completed his sentence rather than a word before he put the key into the ignition and finally drove away from the gas station.

They had driven in complete silence for two whole minutes before Haley finally asked, "Why do I have to be such a what?"

"What?" Nathan jerked his head at the sound of her voice, having been lost in his thoughts.

"You didn't finish your sentence."

"It doesn't matter," he muttered, turning his eyes back to the mostly empty road.

"Well, I think it does. What were you going to say?"

"Look, just, never mind."

Haley carefully folded up her new map, frowning as she chose her words. "You shouldn't start a sentence that you don't intend on finishing."

"It wasn't important," Nathan bit, his patience wearing thin.

Haley let out a short, humourless laugh. "Well you were just about to insult me; I'd like to know what you were going to say."

"I wasn't going to insult you."

"Well, you certainly weren't going to say 'Why do you have to be such a nice person'!" she laughed.

"Look, will you just let it go already," he bit out.

"I want to know what you were going to say!"

"You really want to know?"

"I really –" Haley started to yell back, but suddenly shrieked when there was a loud bang and the car started to skid off the road. Nathan jerked the wheel, trying to regain control of it and managed to get them to stop, but not before they had gone a few meters off the road and into the surrounding field.

"Are you okay?"

Haley nodded, not realising he wasn't looking at her to notice, before asking "What happened?"

He stayed in the car long enough to tell her, "I think the tyre burst," before getting out to check.

Haley took a few moments to catch her breath after the sudden shock before going out to join him. She found Nathan squatting in front of the right back wheel. "Is it flat?" When Nathan nodded, she added, "Well, the gas station isn't far at all. I didn't see any tyres but I'm sure they must have some. If we just go and ask –"

"It's okay, we have a spare tyre."

"We do?"

"Yup," Nathan informed her standing up to open the trunk. He took out his bags so he could lift the spare tyre that was hidden behind them and showed it to Haley. "It came with the car."

"That's great! So we can get back on track soon," Haley assumed, brightening instantly.

"Hold on a second there," Nathan told her. "We have to fix the thing first."

"Don't you know how to change a tyre?"

"Yeah, I do," he laughed. "But it's not exactly a one minute job."

"Oh. Well, I'll help you. I mean, I've never changed a tyre before but I can try…I can hold stuff," she offered.

"Don't worry about it. I can manage," he told her, putting the tyre down on the ground in front of the faulty tyre before going back to get the tools he'd seen lying on the floor of the trunk.

"Okay…" Haley stuffed her hands in her pockets and silently watched him getting ready to change the tyre before she finally blurted, "You know, I was only trying to be nice."

Nathan stopped what he was doing to look over at her. "I know…but really, I can manage it myself. I've done it on my own before," he replied honestly.

"You're not saying that just because you think I'm too much of a something to help you change a tyre?"

A smile tugged on the corners of his lips as he repeated, "A 'something'?"

"Well, you never did finish your sentence," she pointed out, although she sounded considerably less petulant than when she had been asking about it a few minutes ago.

"How about we just pretend like I never said anything then?" Nathan suggested. After a pause he added, "I'm sorry."

Haley nodded. "And, uh, I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have made such a big fuss about the map."

He resisted the urge to say, "No, you shouldn't have," and instead removed his jacket so he could get started on the tyre. He placed the jacket on top of the car and squatted down in front of the offending tyre before picking up one of the tools. He had started work on it when he suddenly looked up at Haley again and asked, "Do you mind helping me keep this in? It can get slippery and fall off sometimes."

"Sure," Haley responded, moving to kneel down next to him.

It didn't take Nathan long to explain the process to Haley and soon they were working together diligently. It wasn't a fast process but it didn't take as much time as Haley had thought it would from his comments.

"Well, that's it then," Nathan said when they were finally done. "Thanks for your help."

"I think I was more of a hindrance sometimes," she admitted.

He smiled because she had in fact gotten in the way sometimes, but she had clearly tried to help. "No you weren't really."

"Well, then, you're welcome," Haley responded with a small laugh.

"So, I guess we better get this show back on the road. Although I do feel slightly hungry now," he admitted.

"Yeah, I feel a little thirsty."

"We could always have some of the stuff we bought with us now and then stop for a meal at the next place we pass that looks good," he suggested.

Haley nodded her agreement. "That sounds good with me." She dusted her jeans and stretched her right leg which she had been sitting on, willing the pins and needles feeling to go away. By the time it did Nathan had already stood up and, she realised, was holding a hand out to help her up. Pleased with the polite gesture, she took it and thanked him.

"No problem," he replied before opening the door to the backseat to take out their snacks. "Which of your drinks do you want?"

"Just the water bottle please."

He handed it over to her and then had a swig of his Gatorade before he took out a pack of crackerjacks.

"Are those crackerjacks? Wow, I haven't had those in ages."

"Want some?"

Haley shook her head. "No, it's okay." When Nathan shrugged and tore the packet open she saw a little packet containing the present inside. "Oooh, what did you get?"

Nathan grabbed a handful of the stuff and began to munch on it before he tended to the present. "It's just a plastic bracelet," he said once he had ripped it open.

"But it's cute," Haley noticed when he held it up for her to see.

"You want it?" he offered.

"Oh, you don't have to give it to me," she began to protest.

"I'm not going to do anything with it," he laughed. "Here," and with that he slipped the bracelet onto her wrist before she could prevent him from doing so.

"Thanks," she admired the colourful bracelet as they completed the rest of their refreshment break in silence.

It wasn't long before they had everything packed away and were driving again. However, Haley decided this time they were going to have a proper conversation instead of just sulking in silence, or worse, arguing needlessly. She knew she hadn't been making as much of an effort as she could have been and there were some things she was curious about. Now was probably as good a time as any to ask him. "Uh…can I ask you something?"

Nathan glanced at Haley before turning his attention back to the road. "I guess."

"Why did you write your book?"

"Why?" he repeated.

"Yeah, I mean, why did you want to? Had you thought of doing something like that for a while? Or, did you suddenly realise there were a large number of…potential 'players' out there who had no guiding force in their life?" she wondered before she could stop herself, even making air quotes with her hands at the appropriate moment.

Nathan laughed heartily at that. "No, I didn't think about that actually. Well, not at first. It was just kind of something to do, I suppose," he said with a shrug.

"Oh." Haley didn't want to be disappointed in that answer but, somehow she'd been hoping for something a bit more substantial.

Although he was concentrating on driving, Nathan couldn't miss the slightly strained tone of her voice. "Would you rather it had been my life-long ambition to write a player's handbook?" he joked.

Haley smiled at the thought. Him not taking the book too seriously had to be better than if he thought you could really teach men to play women through some self-help book, didn't it? "No, I wouldn't," she admitted truthfully. "I suppose I just never thought of people writing and publishing books so they had something to do. When I feel bored I go to the cinema."

"Well, I didn't write it just because I was bored," he countered a little defensively. "One day I was talking with the guys – well, you know Lucas. I was talking to him and some of our friends – and someone came up with the idea of a player's handbook. I don't even remember who thought of it or how the conversation came up actually, but it did. And our friend Chris suggested I write one and at first I didn't think I actually would, but I remembered that a few weeks later when I wasn't doing anything so I sat down and wrote a little, and every now and then when I was free I'd write a little more. It was only when it was about half-way through that I started to think of it as anything more than just something for fun," Nathan explained. "It probably wouldn't have been published though if Lucas hadn't found it by accident one day just before I'd almost finished."

"You didn't show it to him?"

"I didn't show it to anyone. No one really thought of me as a writer – especially not myself."

He noticed that that she seemed satisfied by that answer so he decided to indulge his own curiosity and ask, "How did you decide to write your book?"

"Oh, I always knew," Haley said easily, a wide smile on her face.

"Since you were a kid?"

She nodded. "I was always writing stories, from when I was about seven or eight. My mum still has some of them actually; she always said she was going to keep them because if I ever became a famous author they'd be worth something one day. Although I don't think I'd want anyone else to read them; at least not the earlier stuff."

"Bad handwriting?"

"No, my handwriting's okay, but those stories are terrible! The earliest one she still has was about a volcano erupting and everyone in the story died except me," Haley admitted sheepishly. When Nathan chuckled she blushed, but couldn't help but laugh herself.

"Well, think of it this way: at least that shows how far you've progressed with your work. Well," Nathan added after a pause, "I hope you have."

"I have!" Haley exclaimed, but when she caught sight of the teasing grin on Nathan's face she gave him a playful poke on the shoulder.

"Hey, I don't know; I've only read a few pages of your book."

"True. I'd say you should read the rest of it if I didn't think you probably wouldn't enjoy it anyway."

"I thought you said it wasn't chick lit," Nathan joked, recalling their initial conversation.

"It's not!" Haley quickly defended. "Well, maybe…sort of. But not exactly the way you think."

"And what do you think I think it is?"

"You mean other than mindless drivel?"

"Hey, I never said I thought that."

Haley shrugged, but decided she'd rather steer the topic in a different direction. She always had been a bit over-sensitive when it came to her writing. "Well, I guess it doesn't matter. But, you know, if you ended up writing almost out of accident, what are you going to do now? I mean, once the tour's over?"

"That's actually something I've been asking myself," Nathan admitted slowly. "My last job before the book and all this was as a salesman."

"What kind of sales?"

"Cars; my Dad owns a dealership and I was working there. I could always go back to that when this is finished but…I don't know; I don't really want to. I was never really much into selling stuff, it was always just…"

"Something to do?" she offered.

"Pretty much," Nathan said with a laugh. "Plus, I think my Dad wants me to take over when he retires, which I know I don't want so it's probably best if I don't go back there."

"Do you think you'll write another book then?"

"Maybe, but I'd have to think of something to write about first. Do you have any ideas?" he said jokingly, but Haley immediately sat up straighter and started thinking.

"Oh, I'm sure I can come up with something for you!" She pondered for a moment and then suggested, "Have you thought about a follow-up? 'A Player's Handbook: Take Two'? I don't know what you'd say in it though. Or maybe a version for women?"

"I don't know if I'd like to give dating advice to women."

"Probably a good idea," Haley agreed. "But there's plenty of other things you could write about! How to seduce a women in thirty days or less? Or, ooh, you could even write a fiction about a young bachelor's exploits. A regular modern day Playboy of the Western World," she spouted off as ideas popped into her head, but stopped when she noticed Nathan had long since stopped keeping his eyes on the road and instead trained them on her. "What? I wasn't trying to make fun of you!"

"I know! It's that you were serious that worries me!" he stated sourly.

"Wh-but I…I didn't mean to offend you," she said meekly when she realised he really was off-put by her suggestions.

"It doesn't matter," he shrugged and began to properly return his focus on the road only moments before sputtering, "Playboy of the Western World? I mean, what-".

"It's a play," Haley interjected.

"What?"

"'The Playboy of the Western World'; it's a play!" she repeated. "That's what I was thinking of when I said that."

"Oh. So you meant for me to write a book version of that?"

"Well, not really. For starters it's from the 1900s and…well, it's kind of weird. At least, I thought so. Plus, the title is kind of misleading."

"How so?" Nathan wondered. "Is he not really a playboy or something?"

"Well, he is; all the women in the village like him but it's sort of more about if he killed his father…although they're all pretty sure he did at the start." Haley shrugged before continuing, "Oh, I can't remember, I read it a long time ago. But, you know, I wasn't trying to suggest that was all you could write. I just don't know what other genres you like," she explained. "Not chick lit obviously," she stated, gaining a chuckle from Nathan. "Um…do you like mystery stories?"

Nathan nodded. "Yeah, actually, I do. Mysteries are pretty cool."

"Me too!" she agreed enthusiastically. "I always want to see if I can work out who the murderer is before the detective does."

He smiled at that. "I kind of just let them figure it out for me."

"You never try to work it out yourself?"

"Well, not actively, I guess, but sometimes I'll know who the murderer or robber or whatever is before they reveal it at the end."

"Oh, I don't like the ones that are just about robberies or…" Haley thought for a moment trying to come up with an alternative, "drug smuggling or whatever. Most of them are just so dull. Murder mysteries are so much more…exhilarating!"

Nathan glanced over at her side of the car and the excited expression in her face made him pause. "You know, you scare me a little bit."

Haley laughed, but only briefly for his own deadpan expression told her he wasn't completely joking. "Okay," she replied slowly.

"But, hey, since you like murder mysteries so much have you thought of writing one of them yourself?" he wondered.

Haley bit the side of her lip as she paused for a moment. Finally she admitted, "Actually, I've started writing one of my own."

"Really? Well, I guess I don't have to ask you what you'll be doing after the tour."

Haley laughed. "I wouldn't be too sure of that. I started it more than a year ago now and I haven't really made much progress. It's just been difficult because I want it to be interesting, but…still believable, you know? Plus, I'm still figuring out what all the clues will be and then there's the problem of how it's actually going to be solved…"

"Sounds like a chore."

"Oh no!" she exclaimed. "Don't get me wrong; it's difficult, yes, but it's not a chore. Figuring it all out is one of the things I love so much about writing. Some people say sometimes you should try not to think about it and just let your creativity or whatever take over you and let it flow, but I can never do that; well, I can when I play but when I write I have to have everything figured out, which takes ages. It's kind of a long, drawn out process – well, for me anyway, I always get stuck," she added, laughing, "but I love it all the same."

It was a feeling that shone through in her eyes and Nathan found it hard to tear himself away from looking at her and re-focus his attention on the road.

"So," Nathan cleared his throat before continuing, "what do you play?"

"Oh!" Haley blushed, not having realised what she'd let slip. "Just the piano and the guitar," she confessed.

"Wow. You any good?"

She chuckled, "Not really. I just play for fun. But, what about you? Do you play any instruments? Or have any hobbies or something?"

"I like playing basketball."

"Oh yeah? You any good?" she smiled repeating his words.

His reply, "Hell, yes!" made them both laugh. "Do you play ball?" he wondered.

"Oh, no," she shook her head vehemently. "I'm terrible at sports. I have zero co-ordination, really. In high school I almost flunked Gym because of it."

Nathan shot her a look. "Nobody flunks Gym."

"It's true! I was terrible. Hey, it's not that funny," she pouted, poking him in the shoulder at the way he was laughing. "It was very traumatic back then when it ruined my GPA."

"Let me guess; you had a 4.0?" he smirked.

Haley crinkled her nose in disgust as she said, "3.9 thanks to stupid Gym!"

Nathan grinned but spared her from any remark. "I haven't thought about high school in a long time," he noted.

"Must be your old age," she retorted, smiling innocently when he glanced back at her.

"Very funny. You know, I bet you were quite the good little girl back then. I wonder what your teachers think about you writing sex novels, now."

"They're not sex novels!" Haley exclaimed.

At the look of pure shock on her face it took all he had not to burst out laughing. "Well, I can't call it chick lit, now I can't call it sex novel either? Although I suppose the correct term for that is erotic-" His speech was interrupted by a loud slap on his arm.

"It's not that and you know it."

"Not what?" he teased, glancing at her again and grinning at her flushed appearance.

"You know," she muttered.

"Oh come on. You're telling me you can't say it?"

"Well, of course I can." Nathan was about to point out she hadn't though when Haley continued, "I suppose you just must be more comfortable talking about that kind of stuff with people you don't really know since you've already written about it."

"No, no, so not true. My book is about dating not what happens when the date is over – or before the date, you know, whenever," he shrugged. "I don't know if I could write an actual sex manual…or erotic novel or whatever."

"Why not? Don't tell me you're shy?"

"Not shy," he said pointedly, "Just…I don't know," Nathan admitted. "I guess it's not really something I've thought about before, but I do prefer my porn visual rather than literary."

Haley slapped her palm against her forehead and sighed. "How did we start talking about porn?"

Nathan shrugged. "You were the one who started the conversation so it has to be your fault. Ow!" he yelped when she pinched his forearm. "It was a joke! Will you quit abusing my arm? I am driving here. Anyway, it's your novel that's erotica-"

"It's romantic fiction, that's not the same thing as erotica, Nathan!" Haley retorted, her face still slightly red.

"Okay, okay. So I guess even jokes about you writing it are out as well?"

"Yes! Besides, it would probably be a while before I had enough authority on the subject to think about writing it," she commented off-hand.

"What?" Nathan wondered, his eyebrows rising.

Haley blushed as she realised what she'd let slip. "Oh, I didn't think I'd actually said that out loud," she admitted before biting her lip.

"You don't mean what I think you meant do you?"

"Let's change the subject, shall we? And keep your eyes on the road!" she reminded, when he continued staring at her.

He followed her instructions but the roads were still mostly empty so he continued to glance at her every now and then, although she was staring determinedly out the window and wouldn't meet his eyes.

His better instinct was telling him to change the subject or better yet, just shut up, but he found himself saying, "You, you have…I mean…No, of course you have," he finished, shaking his head as if that would knock some sense into him.

There was a distinct pause before she suddenly burst out, "What did you just say?"

"Nothing…just…I mean, you're what, 25? Of course you've had sex."

Her face flushed red but Haley found she was unable to stop herself from blurting out, "So you think everyone over the age of 25 has had sex?"

"Well, not everyone," Nathan said as if it were obvious.

"Then how did you automatically include me in that?"

"Because you're hot," he replied, unable to keep the "duh" expression from creeping into his voice.

Haley's mouth formed an "O" shape as her cheeks blushed brighter. "I feel strangely humiliated and flattered at the same time."

Nathan smirked and at first Haley smiled back but then broke from his gaze and turned to look out the window. By doing so she shortly noticed a prominent building up ahead.

"Does that look like a rest stop to you?" Haley wondered.

"Yeah, I think it is. Are you hungry?"

"Um…not really."

"Yeah, I'm not that hungry either. But it might be better to eat here anyway. We don't really know where the next place we can eat at will be."

"That's true…Oh, wait!"

Nathan almost stopped the car at her sudden exclamation but Haley simply opened her map that had been resting on the dashboard in front of her and started flicking through it.

She seemed to find what she was looking for soon because her eyes lit up and she held up the page for him to look. "This has a list of all the major rest stops on our route, see?"

"Oh, that's useful."

She nodded as her eyes darted across the page before she finally looked up. "Ooh, there is another one up ahead. It looks about…half an hour from here," she worked out.

"That sounds good."

"Then we'll stop there instead?"

"Sure." Nathan nodded as he drove past the stop they had seen just in front of them.

"You know…I don't think your Google Map came with a list of all the rest stops along the way."

Nathan bit back a smirk as he glanced over his shoulder at Haley's triumphant smile. "No, I don't think it did," he admitted.

"See. I told you getting a proper map was a good idea." When he didn't respond she prodded, "Right?"

Nathan wondered if he should tell Haley she was on the verge of returning to downright annoying, but he gave in to her teasing and let out an, "I suppose."

She settled back into her seat looking so smug he almost couldn't help himself from asking her outright what he'd just been wondering. But then she grinned widely at him before flipping through the map and Nathan decided to let it slide as he forced himself to concentrate on the rest of the drive ahead.


	8. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: **Surprised to see me? I'm really sorry I keep taking so long between updates! I'm trying to be better, but I'm afraid I can't make any promises. I hope you like the update though. This is un-beta'd since I felt bad about making you guys wait so long again so all mistakes are mine.

**Chapter Seven**

_Chicago, Illinois_

"Hey there, neighbour."

Nathan grinned at the brunette standing in front of her hotel room door as he walked down the corridor. "You haven't been standing there all this time waiting for me to come up so you could say that have you?"

Haley rolled her eyes at him. "The world does not revolve around you, Nathan Scott. I'll have you know that in the time it's taken you to get off your phone and get your butt upstairs I've already finished unpacking."

"What for?" he wondered as he fished through his pockets for the key card the concierge had given him when he and Haley had checked in more than half an hour ago. "We're leaving in less than two days. You just have to pack it all again."

"I don't like leaving my clothes in my bag to get all crushed."

"You could just unpack the things you don't want to get crushed. I only take out the things that'll crush easily."

"Well, yes, but I also don't like to keep it all in my bag because it feels like living out of a suitcase."

"But we are living out of suitcases," Nathan pointed out, coming to a stop in front of his room door, which was right next to hers.

Ignoring his comment, she asked "Are you going to open your door or not? I have something to show you!"

"So you've been waiting for me?"

"Ahem, I opened my door because room service arrived with the drink I ordered and when they left I saw you get off the elevator."

"So you _have_ been waiting for me," he smirked.

Haley scoffed. "For, like, a minute."

He raised an eyebrow as he stressed, "But you still waited."

She gave up and simply rolled her eyes at him. "You like yourself way too much."

Nathan simply winked. "Yeah, but you like me too."

The statement caused Haley to laugh but she made no attempt to refute it. It was hard to believe that just hours ago she would have gone out of her way to deny the claim but she could finally admit that she really did genuinely like him. And even though she'd never admit it out loud, she was actually glad Brooke had guilt-tripped her into going with Nathan since it had improved their relationship so much. The excitement of each autograph signing and meeting people who actually liked her book would probably have made up for having to spend the rest of the month with someone she only just tolerated, but now that they were almost friends the signings would be even more fun. It also didn't hurt that Nathan was easy on the eyes, even if he was all too well aware of it.

Haley was not, however, about to tell Nathan all that and inflate his ego more than it already was, so she said, "Will you just go into your room?"

"But I thought you wanted to show me something?"

"I do, but you have to go into your room first," Haley explained and went inside hers, shutting the door closed behind her, without waiting for a reply.

Nathan looked after her curiously, but then simply shrugged and unlocked the door to his hotel room. His bags had already been brought upstairs so he moved the smaller one to prop the door open slightly so that Haley would be able to get in easily when she decided to show him whatever it was.

He gave the room a quick survey and decided he liked it. It was classy but not overdone and the mattress seemed comfortable, which, for him, was the most important part. He turned the TV on and began to flick through the channels but it wasn't long before he discovered there nothing interesting on. Furthermore, Haley didn't seem to be coming anytime soon so he opened his larger bag to take out his toiletries and a change of clothes before heading to the bathroom.

Nathan had almost finished dressing when he heard a sound resembling a light rapping, but initially dismissed it as coming from another room since he knew he'd left his door open. However, the rapping soon grew louder and more insistent. He came out of the bathroom, intent on asking Haley why she felt like she needed to knock when he'd already left the door open for her, but was surprised to find there was no one in the doorway. Looking around the room Nathan tried to locate the source of the noise and after putting the TV on mute realised that it was coming from that side of the wall.

It wasn't long before he noticed something he had missed earlier in his quick glance around the room. He had thought that to the right of the TV it was just the wall but on closer inspection he noticed a small handle in the middle of it that showed it was actually a door.

He took a swift step forward and opened it to find Haley standing on the other side, her fist raised in the air, getting ready to knock again. She lowered it and smiled when she saw him. "Hello you."

"Hey," he laughed. "I'm guessing this is what you wanted to show me?"

Haley nodded. "Connecting doors. Isn't it neat?"

"Yeah, it's pretty cool. I don't think they mentioned it when we checked in."

"Took you long enough to find it!" she told him, giggling.

"Oh, were you waiting for me to find it?" he realised.

"Well, I was at first but when you didn't open it soon I realised you must have not seen it. I was going to come show you but then I got a phone call from Brooke and after that I got changed for dinner. I can't believe it took you so long before you noticed," she laughed at him.

"Hey!" he protested. "The wallpaper is on the door too so it blends in."

"Yeah, but didn't you wonder what a handle was doing in the middle of a wall?"

"I didn't see it. It's a small handle!" he pouted. When Haley giggled again he spoke before she could say anything, "What did Brooke phone you about?"

"She called to tell me I was having dinner with her and Lucas and…oh, who was that? Oh, that's right – you! You could have told me you know," she tried to sound stern and raised her eyebrows at him.

"I was going to!" he defended. "Lucas only told me when I spoke to him downstairs but when I came up you were all excited to get on with your surprise."

"Okay," she sing-songed, "I forgive you."

"I'm so glad," Nathan replied mock-seriously. "Nice dress," he noted, nodding at her outfit.

Haley glanced down at her black dress and smoothed the fabric down carefully. It was the same one she wore the night she'd gone to dinner with Nathan in San Francisco and she hadn't really wanted to wear it again but she didn't think the other two dresses she had packed were dressy enough for the restaurant they were going to. When she'd been getting ready for the signings she hadn't known how many nice clothes she'd need but, at any rate, she didn't like to pack too much and she hadn't thought she'd care about anyone seeing her in the same outfit more than once. It annoyed her that she did care, especially when Nathan probably wasn't bothered about what she wore, but she couldn't help herself from stating, "You've already seen me in it."

Nathan shrugged. "Doesn't mean you don't still look good in it."

Haley blushed slightly before uttering a, "Thank you." Her blush deepened when she finally took in Nathan's appearance and realised he had changed into smart black trousers and a white shirt; a shirt that was completely unbuttoned and revealed part of his bare torso. "Oh, I'm sorry – I didn't realise you were changing. I wouldn't have disturbed you otherwise."

He shrugged again. "It's okay, I'm almost done." He stepped back to give her room to enter before asking, "You want to come in?"

"Oh, uh…while you're dressing?" Haley stuttered.

Nathan chuckled. "I'm not naked, Haley."

Haley flushed, scolding herself immediately afterwards. She could hardly see his chest there was no need to be blushing about it (no wonder Peyton kept reminding her it was way past time she had a new boyfriend). Plus, Nathan probably had no qualms about being even remotely shirtless in front of someone else (although from what she could make out he certainly had no reason to be). She had to get a grip.

Doing her best to sound like men invited her into their bedroom while they dressed everyday of the week, Haley rolled her eyes at him and said, "I just meant I thought you might like some privacy while you finished, I know that you're…decent."

He shot her a wide grin. "I never said that." Haley rolled her eyes at him for real this time and sauntered past him into the room as he added, "I couldn't help myself."

"I'm sure," she grinned as she turned to face him.

He pointed to the bed saying, "The remote's over there if you want to see what's on TV."

"Okay," she replied, sitting down on the front of the bed and picking it up, turning the sound back on.

While she changed channels Nathan began buttoning his shirt and moved to pick up the large suitcase off the bed to take it to the cupboard. He then walked to the main door to move his smaller bag so it would close.

"How come your door was open?" she wondered.

"I thought you would need to get in through there to show me your surprise," he explained with a smile in his voice as he put the bag into the cupboard.

"Oh! Thanks – or, sorry, rather."

"It's okay."

Just then Haley switched to a sports channel that was showing a basketball game, which instantly reminded her of something she'd thought of while she'd been unpacking not that long ago. She looked over to where Nathan had gone but could only see the side of his body as he was standing behind the open cupboard door. "Hey Nathan, remember how I was trying to think of things for you to write about?"

"Yeah, it was only earlier today Haley. I don't have that bad a memory," he said in a mock-serious tone.

Haley ignored his tone and continued, "Did you ever think of writing a basketball book?"

Nathan poked his head out from behind the door at that. "What do you mean?"

"You know, a book about basketball."

His face disappeared behind the door again but he continued the conversation, wondering, "You mean like a story that involves people playing basketball?"

"Maybe. Or…" Haley paused for a moment as she tried to think, "pointers on how to play basketball? Like a sort of 'Basketball for Dummies'!"

"I'm a little bit offended that you think people who see themselves as 'dummies' would be my only market," he said, jokingly.

"You know that's not what I meant."

"I know. And while I have to admit I have a wealth of knowledge on the subject-"

"How modest."

Nathan leaned his head out to shoot her a smirk before moving back behind the door and continuing, "I think basketball advice is probably something better taught on the court than in a book."

"I suppose you're right. – Hey, what are you doing behind there for so long; have you been admiring yourself in the mirror?" she joked, amused at the possibility.

Nathan's head popped out again, looking slightly incredulous. "No, I have not been staring at myself in the mirror all this time. Jesus, Haley, how big of an ego do you think I have?"

"Well, there is a mirror on the inside of the cupboard door – at least, there's one in mine."

"The mirror is on the other door. I've been unpacking and trying to choose a tie," he explained, and held out his hands that were currently holding two as proof.

"Oh." Haley placed the remote on the bed and walked over to him to take a look. "Why can't you decide?"

Nathan shrugged. "I don't know. I'm sure both would be just fine so I don't know how to pick between them. You choose," he added, holding them out a little further in front so she could see them better.

"Oh…" Haley looked from one to the other, soon realising she'd been a bit hasty in thinking it strange Nathan was taking so long to pick. The only time she'd had to choose clothes for a man before was when she had to buy them for her father, and then he told her what he wanted. And the two ties had a similar pattern to each other, only one was mostly black and the other mostly brown. "I really don't know. Just pick one. I mean, it's just a tie."

"It's just a tie?" he repeated, eyebrows raised. "And I suppose that necklace you're wearing is just a necklace?"

"I didn't spend ages choosing what necklace to wear," Haley countered.

"Because you didn't bring many to choose from or because it's your favourite?" he wondered.

Haley's hand shot to her throat and touched the silver chain and small ring pendant that hung from it. "How did you know that?" she asked, surprised.

"You're always wearing it. I just assumed." As he spoke Nathan took one more glance at the two ties in his hand and threw one back into the open bag in front of him before buttoning his top button.

"Oh. Yeah, I guess I do," she admitted, circling the chain with her index finger

"Is it special or something?" he asked as he turned his collar upwards and put his tie around his neck.

"Yeah. My parents…well, they've known each other forever and my Dad gave this ring to my Mom when they were very young as a present once. When they got older her finger grew too big for it but she put it on this chain so she could still wear it. Apparently, when I was a baby I always used to pull at it and want to play with it so when I was a little bit older my Mom let me have it."

Nathan smiled as he finished with his tie. "That's nice."

"So, do any of your ties have special meaning to you?"

He chuckled. "Nope. I was just teasing you."

Haley laughed. "Then how did you decide on that one?" she asked, pointing to the black tie he had chosen.

"So I could match your dress," he said with a wink.

She couldn't help the light blush that coloured her cheeks at that but managed to laugh it off. "Very funny."

Nathan grinned as he turned his collar back down. Closing that door of the cupboard he opened the other where he had hung some of his clothes and took a suit jacket off its hanger.

However, before he could put it on Haley stopped him. "Hang on; your collar's not straight."

"What?" Nathan asked, looking down.

Haley reached up and adjusted the right side of his collar. "There you go." Automatically her hands came down to smooth the sides of his shirt and as she did so she could feel the outline of his broad shoulders through the thin cotton.

She noticed Nathan opened his mouth to speak, an action that clued her in to the fact that she was still touching him and she dropped her hands back down to her sides instantly. Before either of them could say anything there was a knock at the door.

"Oh…that must be Lucas," Nathan explained, slipping into his jacket and closing the cupboard door. "He said he'd come meet us upstairs."

Haley nodded as Nathan turned and took the few steps to open the door.

Lucas stood on the other side, also dressed in a jacket and tie, his hands shoved into his pockets as he smiled. "Hey, you ready?"

"Yeah, just about," Nathan replied, stepping back to give Lucas space to come in.

"Thanks. How's the room? – Oh, hi, Haley! Sorry, I didn't see you there."

"That's okay. Hi," she responded with a smile.

"How are you?"

"I'm good, thanks. And yourself?"

"Yeah, fine. Did you have a good trip?"

She nodded. "Yes, it was good. How was your trip with Brooke?"

"It was great. Of course, Brooke and I got to Chicago ages before you guys."

"Well, Nathan and I thought it wouldn't matter if we took slightly longer breaks since we didn't have to get here early or anything."

"Now, Haley, you don't have to make excuses for Nathan's crappy driving."

"Oi!" Nathan called out from behind his brother as Lucas and Haley both laughed.

Lucas took a step towards Haley and said in a mock-whisper, "If he got lost you can tell me."

"I did not get lost! I already told you downstairs we just took longer breaks."

Giggling, Haley replied, "He didn't get lost. We did get a flat near the beginning but Nathan's driving was fine."

"See!" Nathan looked at his brother pointedly, but Lucas turned back to face him and shook his head.

"I'm still not convinced; I think she's covering for you."

"Hey, if Haley and I hadn't got a flat and stopped for longer we totally would've been here before you."

"No way!"

"Down boys. Let's all play nice," Haley cut in, looking at them with amusement. Realising they were still standing in the small corridor between the cupboard and the bathroom she took a step back. "Sorry, I should move so you can come in properly. Oh, actually why don't I just go get my purse so I'll be ready to leave."

Lucas took a step to the side at Haley's comment, thinking she needed to walk past, but she just turned round and went through the connecting door to her room.

"Oh, cool you have connecting doors," Lucas noted, as he walked further into the room and sat down on the bed. "Did you guys ask for that?"

"No," Nathan told him as he leaned against the wall. "They only gave us rooms next to each other because we checked in together, they just happened to be connecting. – Why would you think we asked for that?"

Lucas shrugged. "I don't know. Just…"

"Just what?"

Lucas peeked through the gap between the doors and noticed that even though Haley had pushed the door in her room back, it wasn't fully closed so he got up and stood next to his brother before he spoke quietly, "Just, you know…I thought you said you guys didn't like each other."

"No. Okay, I guess, we haven't always gotten on but…today was good. Haley and I are cool now," Nathan replied. "But that still doesn't answer my question."

"Well, uh, even after what you said I kind of thought that…" Lucas paused to check Haley wasn't about to come back in before finishing, "you were into each other."

"What?" Nathan exclaimed, not bothering to moderate his voice.

"Shhh! And don't get all annoyed, I've seen you working the 'Nathan Scott charm' on her," he stated, making air quotes with his fingers. "I just thought that connecting doors would be useful if you guys were having a thing."

Practically glaring at him now, Nathan replied, "Well, we're not. And I wasn't! Don't go projecting you and Brooke onto me and Haley."

"I'm not projecting! And so you do admit there's such a thing as you and Haley?"

"I didn't say that!"

"You didn't say what?" Haley wondered, having returned and heard the last sentence of their conversation.

Nathan looked over at her worriedly and tried to think of something. "Uh…say that Lucas…beat us! He's insisting that he beat us to get here."

"Which I did since I arrived here first," Lucas supplied.

"But that's only because you knew Brooke had to be here by a certain time for her meeting!"

"You're still fighting about that?" Haley laughed. "Do you guys make a race out of everything?"

"Not everything…" Nathan began, "but I suppose we are a little competitive."

"A little? Have you forgotten how you were desperate to prove you were the better basketball player back when we were in high school? Man, the depths you stooped too."

Nathan cut in before Lucas could reveal anything more about that time of his life, one he wasn't particularly proud of. "You gave back as good as you got, I recall."

"I wasn't as much of an ass about it as you though," Lucas countered.

"I take it you two weren't always close?" Haley speculated.

Lucas let out a half-chuckle half-snort. "Not hardly."

With a wry smile, Nathan tried to explain. "Remember how I told you Lucas and I are _half_-brothers?"

Haley nodded and a moment later it started to dawn on her. "Oh, I guess you didn't grow up together?"

"Nope," Lucas answered. "We hated each other's guts when we were kids."

"And most of the time when we were teenagers too," Nathan thought aloud.

"How did you become friends?" Haley wondered.

Lucas shrugged. "As much as we hated each other we hated our Dad more. In the end we discovered that wasn't the only thing we had in common."

"Oh…" Haley trailed off so Nathan jumped in.

"It just sort of happened as we got older. I guess eventually we both had to grow up," he finished.

"Right," Haley nodded. "Well, we should probably make a move. Otherwise Brooke might be waiting alone for us."

Just as Haley finished her sentence, Lucas' phone rang. He took it out of his pocket and after looking at the name on the screen smiled. "Speaking of..." He flipped open his phone and said, "Hey Brooke."

Haley waited as Lucas walked past them to continue the conversation. Once he had left Nathan's room and was in the corridor, she took a step toward Nathan and began, falteringly, "I, uh, I hope you're not upset that I asked about you and Lucas."

"What? No, it's fine."

"Are you sure? Because I really didn't mean to pry. It just hadn't struck me that all those stories you told me about you and Lucas today were pretty much only from college onwards."

"No, really, don't worry about it Haley. It's not a big deal. It was all such a long time ago."

"Yeah, exactly. And I'm sure you and your Dad must have a better relationship now as well," she thought.

Nathan laughed at that. "Not really. My relationship with my Dad is pretty much…as it ever was."

"Oh…But I thought you said that you worked for him? Or used to, before you started doing this? – Wait, don't answer that. It's none of my business. I'm sorry for being so nosy."

He gave her a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "I don't blame you for wondering. I just…I don't like to talk about it much. Or, ever, really."

"Sure. You don't have to explain." No matter how much she wanted him to, Haley thought to herself.

A knock on the door sounded, prompting Nathan to state, "That must be Lucas."

Haley nodded. "I guess we should set off. We don't want to keep Brooke waiting."

"No," Nathan said with a laugh, "That would not go down well." He moved to switch off the television before asking, "Do you have everything?"

She nodded again, gesturing to the purse in her hands before doing up the rest of the buttons on her coat.

"Okay, then. After you," Nathan gestured for her to walk in front of him.

Haley smiled her thanks before starting to walk towards the door. This was really turning out to be the strangest day. Just when she thought she'd figured Nathan out she was reminded of how much there was about him that she still didn't know. It was to be expected when they'd only known each other…less than a week, she realised with a start. Had it really been that short a time? It was strange how comfortable she felt with someone who wasn't very much more than a stranger, but ever since that morning when she and Nathan had finally made peace Haley had felt perfectly at ease in Nathan's presence. Even just now, chatting with him as he got ready for dinner, bantering over ties; it had felt normal somehow. Except for when she had inadvertently started feeling him up, which definitely wasn't normal (well, maybe it was for him, but not for her) but she was casting that out of her mind as it only furthered her confusion.

As it was Haley was too befuddled by the whole situation to even consider how Nathan felt about it, but if she had thought she was the only one confused by the events of the last few days she would have been wrong.

As he walked behind her, Nathan realised that hadn't been the best idea when Haley belted her coat, an action that served to emphasise the full curves of her figure, forcing him to avert his eyes to the ceiling.

It wasn't like he'd never been mildly intrigued by a woman who wasn't really his type. But in the past he'd simply remembered his own self-imposed rules and moved on to the next woman. Now, however, he was having trouble even remembering his rules!

Haley James was the complete opposite of his type. Lucas would say that was a good thing – which was why he wasn't telling Lucas anything. His brother was probably the worst person to talk to about women, with his serial habit of falling in love. His failed marriage may have lasted a year but before that he'd been engaged no less than three times. At least this thing he had with Brooke, whatever it was, didn't seem to be serious. Lucas would be twenty-nine in two months and it was about damn time he had a fling.

Flings were the only kind of relationship Nathan knew but he highly doubted Haley would be interested in that. She was clearly too professional to be up for something like that and, at any rate, even if she liked him now he didn't think the events of the day had warmed her up to him _that_ much.

Anyway, it was probably better for the sake of the tour if he didn't make any suggestion of the kind. It wasn't like he'd never had just a friendly relationship with a woman! Of course he had. – He just hadn't had a friendly relationship with a woman he was interested in. Nathan had never seen the point in not making a move on a woman you were attracted to. Whenever he was interested in someone he went for it – it was a motto he stuck by for much more than just women, and it had never failed him yet. But as much as his inexplicable attraction to Haley James, seemed to grow he was starting to feel that in this one instance it would be better for him not to act.

What was that saying? The exception that proves the rule? He'd never actually understood how that was meant to work before, but it seemed fitting in this case. Whenever he thought about acting on it, he'd just repeat that to himself and everything would work out. Everything would be fine.

Or so he thought.


	9. Chapter 8

**Author's Note:** So it's been 5 days short of a year since the last time I updated this fic, and I really don't know how that happened. I know I've had busy periods and then times when I had trouble just writing anything, but I can't believe it's been just that long. I'm so sorry that it's been such a long wait! A HUGE thank you to the people still reading. I won't promise anything update-wise, but I really do think the next one won't take as long, and I hope the rest won't either. I can promise though that no matter how long updates take, I haven't forgotten about the story and do intend on completing it (and that goes for my other WIPs as well). - Also, many thanks to Diane for all her helpful feedback.

_**The Player's Handbook Rule Number Five:**_

_It pays off to pay attention, and not just in the way you think. Sure regular compliments about her looks will never go amiss, but next time try to pay attention to what she's saying, like when she starts to go off on one about that film she loved, or the new necklace she bought or whatever. It's not easy, but if you remember even just one thing she said and work it into a later conversation, she'll think you actually listen to her. – And, why is this a good thing you ask? Just try it._

**Chapter Eight**

"Oh, sorry," Nathan apologised again, but, her mouth full of food, Haley could only dismiss him with a smile as she shifted her chair slightly while he did the same with his. The table they were at would have suited her and Brooke fine, but its small size seemed to be a bit of a squish for a guy of Nathan's height and as he was sitting opposite her their feet had bumped into each other a few times. The small space didn't seem to be as much of a problem for Lucas who hadn't been moving around and, Haley thought, was about the same height as Nathan, although possibly slightly shorter.

At that thought she glanced at Lucas, who seemed perfectly content in his sitting position as he took another bite out of his dinner with a smile on his face. In moving her gaze, Haley happened to glance at Brooke who was wearing a similar smile as she sipped her wine and the thought suddenly struck her that the reason Lucas wasn't as troubled by the cramped space as Nathan was because he and Brooke were making good use of the close quarters.

As soon as the image popped into her head, Haley nearly choked on the food going down her throat and had to take a quick gulp of her wine to prevent that occurring.

"Well, this is fun," Brooke chirped loudly to fill the momentary lull in the conversation and, once she had forcibly pushed the refreshed mental images that comment created out of her mind, Haley found herself agreeing.

They were about halfway through dinner, and to Haley's surprise it was the nicest evening she'd had in a while. Her nights in Tree Hill tended to be either spent with her best friend Peyton, usually at Peyton's club TRIC, or alone at home. Sometimes when her parents or siblings were in town she'd have dinner with them, but that was the only time her schedule altered. It wasn't that she disliked spending time with Peyton – she always enjoyed that – or even by herself, but it felt nice to be doing something different for a change. She'd discovered that she and Lucas actually had quite a few interests in common, Brooke could be a bit loud at times, but she was always entertaining, and Nathan was…well, she was having trouble figuring that out. He was still the same guy who had annoyed her the first day they met but she'd learnt a lot of other things about him. He had a good sense of humour and she enjoyed talking to him. He certainly wasn't altogether unpleasant to be around…or to look at.

If she was truly honest with herself, she'd admit that it was as if she was becoming attracted to him. It seemed almost impossible; they barely knew each other and her feelings towards him had changed so often since they'd met that it was hard to pinpoint what she felt. It had only been this afternoon that she'd even once and for all decided she didn't properly dislike him. She was far too confused to really decide how she felt, but at the same time, as the night wore on, she was finding it increasingly harder to deny the signs she was noticing in herself when she was around him; an awareness, an excitement…

But it was just a crush. She'd never believed it was possible to develop feelings for someone until you knew them properly, which was something that took time; something she and Nathan wouldn't have. But that wouldn't matter anyway because feelings were only necessary if you were looking for a long-term relationship and there were very many reasons that wasn't going to be on the cards for them. So it was just a crush, and that's all it would be, and it didn't even matter.

Haley just wished she was in a different seat. It had ended up, partly by accident and partly down to Brooke's own manoeuvrings, that Brooke and Lucas were seated opposite one another, with Nathan next to Brooke while she sat opposite him, next to Lucas. It was the worst seat she could have got. Lucas' chair would have been an ideal position for no contact and minimal vision. Brooke's seat might have afforded some contact, but she didn't take up much space and could have easily avoided most of it. But no, she had to be sitting where he was directly opposite her so not only was he directly in her line of vision, but they kept coming into contact accidentally. Not that she really minded when his legs bumped into hers under the table, but it kind of made her nervous. And nervous Haley wasn't good.

She just wanted to enjoy her night out, damn it! Why did she have to realise her crush now, while they were trying to eat a nice friendly dinner? – Or was it when they were talking during the car ride here, and he always included her in the conversation, even if it was a subject she knew nothing about? Or maybe it was when they were waiting at the bar of the restaurant and arguing over the music playing, but in an easy, friendly way, as if they had known each other for ages? Or when they got their table and he held out her chair for her to sit down? (Although Lucas did that for Brooke first so it might not have been his own idea.) – Haley bit down on her lip to prevent herself from groaning aloud. It wouldn't do any good to start going back over those things or to let them notice she wasn't paying any attention to the general conversation. She was just going to have to stop herself from thinking about Nathan in anything other than a professional capacity. She'd had plenty of minor crushes before, including people she had worked with and she'd managed just fine then so she would certainly have no trouble now.

It appeared she tuned back into the conversation a bit too late however, when she heard Nathan say, "Oh, Haley is."

"I am?" she blurted, highly confused.

"Sure you are." When she responded to his statement with a blank look, Nathan continued, "You told me about your mystery story on our drive down to Chicago."

At the word "mystery" Haley's face turned a deep fuchsia, and found she was unable to give her three companions any reaction other than a cracked smile.

"What kind of mystery? Like a detective story?" Lucas asked, intrigued.

"Uh…yeah, but it's really just bits and pieces at the moment. Not really a proper story or anything. I'm not even sure I'll go through with it yet," she added, trying to brush it off and looked back down at her plate.

"Well, I think a detective story sounds exciting. I'm definitely looking forward to your next book, whatever it's about."

"Thanks, Brooke," Haley replied with a smile that was only half-forced. Although she still felt a little uncomfortable, she knew Brooke's enthusiasm was authentic, having confessed genuine appreciation of Haley's published novel before.

However, in looking up she noticed Nathan's puzzled expression; one she didn't want to respond to in company and would have rather not seen at all so she didn't have to think about it. Stupid proximity.

*

She wasn't the only one worried about proximity.

Later that night, as Nathan stood on the balcony of his hotel room, leaning back against the railing, he wondered about the woman in the room next to him.

Something had happened at dinner that he couldn't quite put his finger on. It looked like she'd had a good time, apart from that one interlude where she seemed uncomfortable, but it was like something had changed…like she hadn't been herself.

He scoffed and shook his head to himself a moment later. How would he know what "herself" was for Haley? They barely knew each other, so he couldn't exactly presume to be an expert judge on what Haley's real self was.

Before he could muse further on the subject, the sound of his cell phone ringing caught his attention. Nathan reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out the item, and a smile grew on his face when he saw who the caller was.

"Hey!"

"Hey, man, how are you doing?" Chris' voice drawled over the phone.

"Good and yourself?" 

"Great, as always. I'm on my way to a gig!"

"At this time? Isn't it kind of late for a concert to start?"

"No," Chris laughed, "the gig's tomorrow, but it's out of town so I'm on the tour bus now."

"Tour bus? That sounds fancy."

"Eh, it's okay. Pretty roomy but not as cool as mine's gonna be when I get one of these babies for myself."

"Is that right?"

"Hell, yeah. Chris Keller's tour bus is going to rock the house."

Nathan chuckled. "I'm sure. I look forward to seeing it someday."

"Well, who knows? This supporting act gig might even bring in enough money for me to get one sooner than you think. – Which reminds me! The reason I called is 'cause I got this spur of the moment thing supporting this band that came by Raleigh this week."

"So I gathered. That's great, Chris."

"Ah, well the band's not that great but it's a good opportunity and good money so who am I to complain?"

Nathan smiled wryly at that turn of phrase, knowing Chris was very much a complainer, but simply asked his friend, "How long will you be on tour with them for?"

"The tour finishes in two months. They said the time I'd be kept on would depend on the audience response but this is Chris Keller we're talking about. Audiences love me."

"Of course," he said dutifully, not really faking it either. Audiences did love him; no matter what you could say about him in real life (and you could say a lot), there was no denying that on stage Chris Keller knew how to work a crowd.

"So, anyway, I wanted to give you a heads-up in case our tour paths cross so maybe we could meet up. Luke's with you too, isn't he?"

"Good idea. Yeah, Lucas is here but not for much longer. We're going next to –"

"Aw, don't tell me now, I'll never remember. Email me your schedule and I'll have a look later."

"Alright, will do."

"So, is the tour going good? Lots of people wanting their book signed?"

"Yeah, actually, it's going very well."

"Wow, great. That's awesome, man."

"You sound a little surprised," Nathan joked.

"Well, you know, if I myself was in need of your handbook it's not the kind of thing I'd be broadcasting to lots of people, you know what I mean? 'Course what kind of advice do I need?"

"None, I'm sure," Nathan replied good-naturedly, used to his friend's generous self-love.

"No offense though, Nate, you know I think the book's great."

"I know, man, thanks."

"Speaking of, you remember that pact we made before?"

"Pact?" Nathan wondered.

"You know, about all five of us following the rules of your book?"

"Oh…Yeah, I remember now. Huh, I'd kind of forgotten."

"Well, those rules came in good use tonight."

Now a little confused, he asked, "I thought you said you didn't need the book."

"Of course I don't. I mean for Mouth! He needed a little help from me and Jake – and our friend Jack Daniels – but he finally hit on a girl tonight."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. I mean, nothing happened, of course – between us, he should have picked someone that was a bit more rebound material for his first, that girl was way out of his league – but there was a definite attempt at flirting."

"Well, good for him."

"Yeah. Hey, what about you?"

"Me?"

"Yeah. Haven't you met any fine young things to make conquests of yet?"

"Conquests? Jeez, Chris."

"Whoa, don't be touchy. Don't tell me Nathan Scott's become sensitive," Chris punctuated the sentence with a roar of laughter.

"No, of course not."

"Well, what then?"

"Well, there hasn't been a huge amount of downtime. Mostly, if we're not working we're travelling."

"But surely there must be some women with you?"

"Yeah, there's…there is a woman. But it's not that simple, okay?"

"She married?"

"No, she's single."

"Is she a lesbian?"

"Uh, no…at least, I don't think so. No, she's not a lesbian okay."

"So what's the problem then?"

"We're trying to work together, Chris. There's quite a lot of the tour left, after all."

"So? You think that's going to stop me from getting with the hot roadie later? – And when has working together stopped you in the past? You know, I can remember a few times that you've –"

"You don't have to remind me, Chris," he cut in, growing tired, not just due to the late hour, but tired of the conversation. "Listen, man, it was great to hear from you but I should be getting to bed. But I'll send you that schedule tomorrow, and I hope you have a great tour."

"Okay. Thanks, man, you too."

After ending the call and slipping his phone back into his trouser pocket, Nathan took one last look at the skyline and turned on his heel to go back into the room. Their next book signing was in the morning and he wanted to get in a good night's rest. He had already taken off his jacket and tie when he first got back, but was still in the rest of his evening attire so he began undoing the buttons on his shirt as he made the few short steps to re-enter the bedroom. Once he gently slid the balcony door closed he was surprised to see that he wasn't alone. On the far side of his bedroom, in the corridor leading to the main door, was none other than Haley James.

Nathan wasn't usually one to complain about a beautiful woman surreptitiously entering his bedroom late at night. In fact, it was rather a fantasy of his and considering the woman in question was the one who'd been occupying his thoughts lately he should have been excited by her appearance. Maybe he would have been if he'd discovered her lying scantily clad (or completely naked, he wasn't too fussy on that score) in his bed, that is, rather than fully dressed, standing slightly crouched with her hand cupping her ear, inching towards his bathroom door.

"Haley, what are you doing?"

At the sound of his voice she shot upright, but the sudden action caused her to knock the side of her head against the wooden door. "Ow," she yelped, putting a hand to the sore spot as she stopped her movements abruptly.

"Are you okay?" Nathan asked, walking over to her.

"Yeah, I think so," were her words, but her actions told him otherwise as Haley's eyes were screwed shut in what he assumed was pain and her hand continued to rub the afflicted area.

"Let me see," he requested when he reached her, moving her hand to replace it with his, and he gently started to rub the bruised portion of her head. "I can't feel a bump. Do you have something you could put on it? Or maybe it's better to not, I don't really know."

At his soothing touch her eyes fluttered open and she looked up at him. "Thank you, but it's really much better," she replied slowly. "I think maybe the surprise made it hurt more than anything else." 

"Okay," he agreed, but decided to keep up the motion with his hands for a bit longer just in case. "So, what were you doing then?"

"Oh," she blushed. "I wanted to speak to you. I knocked on the connecting door a couple of times but there was no answer, but I knew you had come back from the lobby because I heard your door open earlier. I was going to go to the front door and just ring the bell, but then I realised I'd been knocking with both our doors closed so maybe you couldn't hear so I opened my door to knock on the back of yours but your door was a little open so I came in but I couldn't see you so I thought maybe you were in the bathroom and," Haley paused from her ramblings to take a breath before finishing, "I was just listening to see if I could hear you in the bathroom when you came in."

"I've been on the balcony," he explained. "You must have knocked while I was on the phone."

"Right. That must be it. Sorry for being such a klutz."

Nathan shook his head. "You don't have to apologise. How's your head feeling?"

"Fine now, thank you," she assured him with a genuine smile, which forced him to lower his hand. His hand skimmed her thick brown locks before he brought his arm back to his side.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?" he wondered.

"Oh that," she began, a slight blush returning to her face. "It's nothing much…I guess I just wanted to apologise really."

"For what?"

"For the way I was acting at the restaurant." When it looked like he was about to counter her statement, she hurriedly continued, "I know I suddenly started acting a little strange and you don't have to say I wasn't because I know you noticed."

"Yeah, I did a little."

"Right. So I just wanted to apologise for it."

"Okay," he replied slowly. When she kept her eyes averted to the ground but remained still Nathan decided to ask, "Was there any particular reason for that, or am I not allowed to ask?"

"I…" she started, "I just…You know how I told you earlier I was writing a mystery? I didn't exactly tell you the whole story."

"Oh?"

"It's not a big deal, it's just, the only other person I've talked to about it is my editor and she didn't really think it was a good idea for me to write that," Haley admitted.

Nathan took a moment to absorb the confession before frankly retorting, "Well, screw her."

"What?" Haley stared at him, astounded at his remark.

"Forget what she says."

"She's my editor!"

"So? Aren't editors supposed to be encouraging? And supposed to give you feedback on your actual work? They can't tell you what you can and cannot write. You can write whatever you want to, Haley."

"She didn't say flat out that I couldn't write it, just that I shouldn't –"

"That's the same thing," Nathan dismissed. "I don't know, maybe she just doesn't know how to edit a mystery and doesn't want to lose you to another editor," he conjectured, but Haley just shook her head.

"No, Nathan, that's not it. She told me that being such a new writer it might not be a good idea to jump to another genre until I've established myself, and I agree with her," she added.

"Sounds like a load of crap to me."

"Nathan!"

"Haley!" he mimicked in a high-pitched voice and ended with a grin, but Haley was not amused.

Now thoroughly annoyed, she crossed her arms before addressing him directly, "Don't you understand that you need to think about this stuff as a business too? I can write all the mysteries I want, but if I want to make a living off of writing then I have consider things like marketability and whatnot. Don't you get that?"

"Well, yes and no."

"How can it be both?" she blew out, exasperated.

"I know you have to think about things as a business – and I know how to do that; I'm a good businessman, I've worked in sales long enough. But buying a book isn't like buying a phone or a car or whatever. I may not be the most avid reader out there but I think if someone writes a good book that people will like, then there'll always be people who will read it," he stated.

She softened at his explanation, but the disapproving look fell from her face only to be replaced by a disappointed one. "Well, I used to think that too but that's not always the case." 

Nathan studied her expression and furrowed his brows in confusion. "That sounds like –"

"It doesn't matter." Haley shook her head, her arms still about her chest but now less defensive, it was as if they were cradling her body.

Lifting a hand to lightly brush her elbow, Nathan questioned, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Let's just not talk about it, okay?"

"Sure. Look, I'm sorry I brought up the book thing at dinner. It's just when Brooke asked if we were working on any projects and you didn't say anything I thought it was only because you were feeling a bit shy about it."

"It's okay – I guess it's partly my fault for telling you in the first place. And I'm not shy."

"Yeah, you are."

"No."

"You are a little bit."

"Nathan."

"It's okay. It suits you."

"Right." Her tone was dismissive, but she couldn't prevent a slight blush creeping up her cheeks. Ducking her head slightly, Haley suddenly noticed just how close Nathan was standing to her; and just how open his shirt was. The garment was barely hanging on his shoulders so she could see a lot more than she had that evening, and the scrumptious sight was really not what she needed to be looking at when her crush was still so fresh. His well-defined chest was so close she barely had to move an inch forward for the top of her nose to make contact with his chest. The sight and proximity of his sculpted body threw her off guard and she couldn't help blurting out, flustered, "I, uh, didn't mean to disturb you."

"That's okay," he replied, his thumb rubbing against her elbow as if on auto pilot.

Glancing upwards, she saw he was looking down at her, his eyes a deep mesmerising blue. "Nathan," she began, uncertain of the shaky tone of her voice.

"Yes?" he prompted, his voice slightly huskier than before. Oh, boy.

"We…we should go to bed now," she stated, nodding her head as she did so. Yes, she wanted to go to bed. With Nathan. – No, not with Nathan! That wasn't what she meant.

"I suppose we should," he agreed, but made no move to make that action; his thumb didn't even stop its circular hypnotising motion. "After you," he whispered.

"Okay," she blurted out, and every good, decent fibre in her body fully intended to break away from him and go to her bedroom. Yet somehow, she ended up standing on her tiptoes and brushing her lips against his.

The second her mouth reached its destination Haley's eyes flew open at the shock of her own actions. What was she doing? She had to be crazy – and she really had to move away now. It wasn't like she was making any use of her situation. It was as if after summoning the willpower to touch Nathan's mouth, her body had suddenly stopped functioning and was just staying there and not moving anything, not even her lips.

And yet, Nathan didn't seem to mind. He wasn't doing anything either. But he hadn't moved away either. In fact, his eyes had closed, and it made him look kind of peaceful. An admiration of his long eyelashes was her last proper thought before Nathan's lips opened under hers and his head tilted to plant the lightest of kisses, causing her eyelids to flutter shut.

Suddenly alive again, Haley's mouth began to move, her lips returning his feathery kisses. Her mouth wasn't the only thing that had woken. As they kissed, Haley brought her hands up to rest on Nathan's bare skin, oblivious to the action herself.

The feeling of her warm hands against his body was more than welcome, but despite how much he was dying to deepen the kiss and drag her over to the bed, Nathan forced himself to stay under control. Since she hadn't done anything until he started kissing her, he wasn't certain she really knew what she was doing yet.

Her hands crept upwards, Haley too concerned with Nathan's proximity and the feeling of his lips rubbing so gently, too gently, against hers, to realise, until suddenly above his taut skin her fingertip came in contact with a little nub. The realisation that her hand was now on one of his nipples broke through her dreamlike stance with a swish. She almost fell backwards in her hurry to break away from him, somehow still staring directly into his eyes in horror, scrambling for words. "I, uh…" 

He didn't seem too capable with the words either, although at least his expression didn't resemble the freak out she was feeling internally and had to be registering on her face. "Haley…"

She wasn't sure what he was going to say. – Faced with the choice of standing there or running back to her room, she decided she wasn't going to wait to find out.


End file.
